LOS ANGELES - About 50,000 independent voters who were confounded by Los Angeles County’s baffling “double bubble” ballot in California’s primary on Super Tuesday won’t get their choice for president counted, election officials say, because it’s now impossible to unscramble their votes.

The two-step ballot required nonpartisans who wanted to vote in the Democratic primary to mark two bubbles on the ballot – one for the party and the second for the candidate.  

While most voters did, an estimated 49,500 were unable to solve the puzzle.

The ballots can’t be tallied by hand because election officials have no way of determining if the voters meant to pick the Democratic or American Independent candidates on the ballot, Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters spokesman Paul Drugan said. The Republican Party did not allow nonpartisans to participate in its primary.

“It’s impossible, you just can’t do it,” Drugan said. “Legally you are determining somebody else’s voter intent and you’re making assumptions and we can’t engage in that at all. It was a flawed ballot.”

Drugan said the botched ballots did not affect the outcome of California’s primary because Hillary Clinton won the county by more than 150,000 votes over Barack Obama and that statewide propositions were not affected.

He said officials were scrambling to scotch the bewildering double bubble ballot in time for a June election. 

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson