CVF in the News

Below are excerpts from news stories and commentary highlighting CVF's work or featuring comments from CVF staff and board members. Archived CVF in the Media stories are also available.

California's online voter registration plan on hold

By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times, August 21, 2010

Excerpt:

Reporting from Sacramento — Arizonans can register online to vote, thanks to a system created by the state in four months at a cost of $100,000. Washington state did the same thing in seven months for $270,000.

But two years after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized a similar system in California, the project has stalled and is in turmoil. Officials say state voters may not have access to paperless registration for four more years, after a separate $53.4-million computer system modernization is completed.

Citing inadequate performance, Secretary of State Debra Bowen in May ended a contract with the consultant who had been hired to develop the updated system that is needed before online registration can be accommodated. The resulting delay will mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.

Voter-rights advocates are frustrated that the effort to simplify participation in elections is not likely to be in place for the 2012 presidential contest.

"It's hard to understand why we are having so much difficulty doing something that other states have been able to accomplish," said Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause.

Bowen and her staff share a "substantial'" part of the blame for the project's problems, said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., because ultimately it's Bowen's job to pick the right contractor, scale the project so it is feasible, tell the contractor what needs to be done and oversee the work.

Bowen said she had reduced the project's scale to keep costs down and took decisive action early when it appeared to be in trouble. She said she had to move cautiously because of the high stakes involved.

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There are 6.5 million Californians who are eligible to vote but not registered, according to Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, which promotes the use of technology to improve voter participation.

Currently, Californians can fill out a voter registration application online, but clerks must mail them a paper form to be signed and returned. The new system would allow a resident's digitized signature, on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles, to complete the registration without paper.

"California is the home of Silicon Valley, the heart of the high-tech revolution, and yet we are stuck in this 19th century voter registration system," Alexander said.

Each of California's 58 counties maintains separate voter files and uploads its entire voter database to the state system each night. Records of new voters cannot be entered directly into the state system, because it is not sufficiently consolidated with county databases.

The trend nationwide is to allow voters to go online to register to vote or change an address, according to Christopher Ponoroff, an attorney who has studied the issue for the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. Seven states besides California have projects in the works to follow Arizona and Washington, and several others are considering such a move, Ponoroff said.

Paper registration "swamps election officials, burdens taxpayers and creates a risk for every voter that human error — a misplaced form, a data entry slip — will bar her access to the ballot box," Ponoroff said in a recent report on the issue. (full story)

Residents seek to draw the lines on state government

By Timm Herdt, Ventura County Star, August 6, 2010

Excerpt:

Like most engineers, Henry Norton of Oak View likes to examine broken things and figure out how to fix them.

In recent years when Norton looked at his state government, he concluded one of its structural flaws was a system that allowed lawmakers to draw political districts which protected their interests and those of their political parties. Lawmakers elected from impartially drawn districts, he concluded, would improve the system.

After Proposition 11 passed in 2008, creating an independent redistricting commission of ordinary citizens, Norton said his friends issued a challenge: “Put your money where your mouth is.”

So along with about 25,000 other Californians, Norton submitted his name for consideration to become a member of the Citizens Redistricting Commission. He’s now one of 120 finalists remaining for one of 14 positions on the panel.

Today, a panel of three auditors from the State Auditor’s Office interviewed the first four finalists, kicking off a painstaking and remarkably open interview process that will continue every weekday through Sept. 9. By Oct. 1, the panel will submit to the Legislature a list of 60 individuals, kicking off the final stage of the selection process.

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Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, said the decision to webcast the interviews was controversial when the selection regulations were debated, because some believed those who interview later in the process could gain an advantage by watching and learning from earlier interviews.

That concern, she said, “was outweighed by the desire to make the process as transparent as possible.”

Indeed, transparency has been a hallmark of the selection process. All the applications — including personal essays, letters of recommendation and statements of economic interests — are available online for public inspection.

Norton, who retired after 30 years as a civilian engineer with the Navy, is one of two finalists from Ventura County. He is in the pool of 40 registered Republicans.

The other is Gabino Aguirre, a retired high school principal and member of the Santa Paula City Council. He is in the pool of 40 registered Democrats.

Aguirre, who grew up in a family of migrant farmworkers, said he believes that as someone “who has come up through the school of hard knocks,” he could bring a common man’s perspective to the commission’s work.

The selection process so far has worked out precisely as supporters of Proposition 11 had hoped, said Trudy Schafer of the League of Women Voters of California, a major backer of the redistricting initiative.

“I’ve just been hugely impressed by the kinds of backgrounds these people have,” she said of the remaining 120 applicants. “There’s such a depth of community work. We knew these kind of people were out there — people who are very active but not known to the power brokers.” (full story)

Registrar To Put San Diego County Campaign Contributions Online

By Alison St John, KPBS, August 2, 2010

Excerpt:

The city of San Diego has been doing it for four years, and so have 15 of California’s largest counties. But until now, San Diegans who wanted to find out how much candidates for regional office have raised and where the money came from had to make a trip to the Registrar’s office on Ruffin Road. They had to go though paper records, and then there were photocopying fees.

Assistant Registrar Michael Vu says the County has now earmarked $100,000 for a contract to put the information online.

“So the public has the ability to go to our site, and if they have a specific campaign that they want to look at, they will be able to see those documents online as opposed to having to come into our office and viewing them,” said Vu.

Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation says San Diego is now joining the ranks of counties interested in more transparency around campaign financing.

“Any jurisdiction that moves to get data online is moving in the right direction,” she said.

The first campaign contribution disclosure dates for candidates running in the November election is in October. The Registrar still has not awarded a contract for the new system, but hopes to have it online in time. (Audio)

Voter Turnout

Insight, July 25, 2010

CVF President Kim Alexander appeared on the radio program Insight (KXJZ-FM, Sacramento, CA) to discuss the Voter Turnout, July 25, 2010 (Audio)

Sizing Up the November Ballot Measures

The California Report, June 25, 2010

CVF President Kim Alexander appeared on the radio program California Report (KQED-FM, San Francisco, CA) to discuss the November Ballot Measures, June 25, 2010 (Audio)

Anyone for ballot barbecue?

By Ken Garcia, San Francisco Examiner, June 25, 2010

Excerpt:

n case you’ve been too busy celebrating your teams during the World Cup, California recently had an election in which more than two-thirds of the voters decided to sit on the sidelines.

If this is such a great democracy, how come more people don’t participate? Of all the countries playing in the greatest tournament on Earth, only one probably has a less-engaged citizenry — and that’s because if they engage, they’ll likely go to prison (hats off to you, North Korea).

I realize it wasn’t a particularly exciting election — Jerry Brown has now been on the ballot in California since wide ties were considered cool. But you’d think with the state, and all the individual cities and counties teetering on the brink of economic doom, people might think drastic measures are needed, like walking to a polling place.

You’d be wrong.

“There are three kinds of voters: proactive, passive and potential,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, which, as its name implies, tracks such things. “This was a primary, and primaries by design are more of a political party affair.”

But now that the affair has ended, will we see a new voting relationship come November?

“We might,” Alexander said, no doubt with fingers crossed. (read more)

From weed to water, California's fall ballot loaded with measures

By Torey Van Oot, Fresno Bee, June 25, 2010

Excerpt:

Attention California voters: Are you looking to buy and smoke weed without running afoul of the law? Wild about water infrastructure? Think it's a good idea to lower the threshold for passing a budget, but still want to raise the bar for approving fees?

The Nov. 2 ballot has something for you.

Ten measures had qualified for the fall ballot by Thursday's deadline.

While the number of measures is not particularly high for a California ballot, the issues offer all the right ingredients for a costly and complex campaign season.

"What makes an issue big is usually that somebody's going to spend a lot of money on them," said John Matsusaka, president of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California. "What drives voters to the polls is hearing a lot about measures and hearing it being argued."

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This year's ballot features many of the latter, including initiatives that would raise the vote requirement for approving new fees, ban the state from borrowing local funds to balance the budget and repeal corporate tax benefits approved by the Legislature.

"The measures that are more complicated and maybe not as intuitive, it's going to be more difficult for them," said Brandon Castillo, a strategist working on the initiative to prevent the state from dipping into local funds.

Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation, said the high number of measures directly related to the Legislature's actions, and inactions, reflects the level of dysfunction in the Capitol.

"Even the interest groups that normally can get their business done in the Legislature have to turn to the initiative process to go straight to the voters to get their issues considered," she said. "The legislative process isn't working for anyone. It isn't working for special interests, either." (full story)

Herdt: Why it matters to all when so few vote

By Timm Herdt, Ventura County Star, June 22, 2010

Excerpt:

Which is greater: the number of people who voted in this month’s California primary election, or the number of people who follow Britney Spears on Twitter?

If you guessed Britney followers, you’re wrong — but not by much.

There are 5.1 million people who on June 9 learned that Britney was “sitting with Jason. He just played my favorite new song of the summer.” There were 5.4 million who participated in the election a day earlier to select the field of candidates to become the next governor of a state that has more people than Canada.

There is much that one might make of this in the way of preachy social commentary about the state of democracy in California.

But it strikes me that basic questions need to be raised. Why don’t people vote? And why are there so many folks who vote so infrequently?

From election to election, the number of participants varies wildly. In 2008 in California there were three statewide elections. In the February presidential primary, slightly more than 9 million voted. In the June primary for other offices, it slipped to 4.5 million. In the November presidential election, it soared to 13.7 million.

What’s the deal?

I put the question to Kim Alexander, the founder of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation and likely the single person in this state who thinks most about all things having to do with voting.

The foremost factor in determining whether infrequent voters participate in a given election, she said, is also the foremost factor in determining whether someone follows Britney on Twitter, or Al Gore, or Shaq, or Sarah Palin, or no one at all: the influence of peers.

“Passive voters come and go based on what everybody else is doing,” Alexander told me. “There’s a sense that you don’t want to miss out on something that everybody is doing. Friends and family have an enormous influence on their decision to vote.”

That explains, Alexander said, why record numbers of voters — 80 percent of those registered in California, for example — cast ballots in the last presidential election.

“You couldn’t not know that there was a presidential election in November 2008,” she said. Everybody was talking about it.

While it’s unrealistic to expect every election to generation that kind of buzz, Alexander believes there’s much that can be done in every election cycle to promote participation.

She recommends that organizations and individuals consider hosting election house parties “to get together with friends and neighbors to walk through the ballot.”

In addition, she suggests that regular voters consider mentoring others.

“It is a lot of work to be a regular voter in California,” with its frequent elections and often complicated ballot initiatives, she said.

For a new or infrequent voter, the ballot can be a mass of confusion. “Nobody wants to do anything they’re not good at,” she said. (full story)

Top of the 9th

By By Cosmo Garvin , Sacramento New & Review, June 17, 2010

What will Proposition 14—the “top two primary” law that voters just approved on June 8—really mean for California elections? Who knows?

We’re funny about initiatives that way. Vote first, ask questions later.

But we do have an interesting case study happening right here in Sacramento’s 9th Assembly District.

Here, two progressive democrats, Kevin McCarty and Roger Dickinson remain neck and neck for the Democratic nomination.

The latest reports Bites saw showed Dickinson with 11,572 and McCarty with 11,354 votes. Each got about 35 percent of the Democratic vote, while runners-up Lauren Hammond, Chris Garland and Adam Sartain gathered about 10,000 votes collectively. The presumptive Republican nominee, Rick Redding, got 99 percent of the GOP vote in his primary, but garnered just 9,835 votes. The numbers are still changing, but you get the idea—this district belongs to the Democrats.

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But Bites talked to Kim Alexander with the California Voter Foundation about the measure, and she has a somewhat counterintuitive take.

“I think it’s going to be better for all parties, actually,” she said. In fact, Alexander thinks Prop. 14 could actually invigorate the third parties, boost their registration numbers and give them more influence over all.

Consider: Bites used to register Green, and still would, but the Democratic primaries are where all the action is. How many more people would register Green or Peace and Freedom or Libertarian if they didn’t have to sit out of some of the most competitive races every election year? Prop. 14 opens party primaries to all voters. “Most minor parties aren’t competing in the election in any way right now. I think this will help them recruit more members,” Alexander explained. (full story)

Elections officia make dent in uncounted ballots

By Duane W. Gang, The Press-Enterprise, June 11, 2010

Excerpt:

Since a 24-hour vote-counting operation began Thursday, Riverside County elections officials have tallied more than 47,038 additional ballots from this week's election.

The office missed a goal of noon Friday to finish counting 98,000 mail-in ballots, but will continue the around-the-clock work until the task is complete, Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore said.

The county received a flood of mail-in ballots immediately before the election and about 30,000 on Election Day itself.

The task of opening, sorting and verifying signatures is time consuming and an issue faced by elections officials across the state. More than 797,000 ballots statewide still must be counted, the secretary of state reported Friday.

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In addition, elections officials continued to sort out how 20,000 ballots did not it into their hands in time from the U.S. Postal Service.

Those ballots cannot legally be counted because they were not in the possession of the registrar's office by the time polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Kim Alexander, president of the Sacramento-based California Voter Foundation, called it "outrageous" that so many ballots will go uncounted.

"It's one of the downsides of voting by mail. There's just no guarantee of when that ballot's going to arrive," she said Friday. "If there is a glitch at the post office, it can result in widespread disenfranchisement."

Riverside County's 20,000 post-election mail ballots would be its most ever.

In the November 2008 election, for example, Riverside County reported 4,285 uncounted mail ballots. That compared to 284,000 mail ballots cast, a 1.5 percent rate. (full story)

Voters Face Long Ballot

KCRA.com, June 7, 2010

CVF President Kim Alexander appeared on KCRA to dicuss the June 8, 2010 Primary Election, June 7, 2010 (video)

Who Spent What on State Propositions

KPBS,org , June 4, 2010

Supporters and opponents of all five state propositions on the ballot next week have spent a total of almost $70 million.

The analysis, by the non-profit California Voter Foundation, reveals Pacific Gas and Electric has spent easily the most money on state propositions this election season.

PG&E spent $46 million on Prop. 16, which, if passed, would require a two-thirds voter approval for local public electricity providers.

Opponents of that measure have raised just under $1 million.

The next biggest spender is Mercury, which donated $16 million to support an initiative to change auto insurance pricing rules. That’s about ten times more than opponents of Prop. 17 have spent. (full story)

Politics & Money

by Jeffrey Callison, NPR - Insight, May 24, 2010

A new study shows where money for California political campaigns comes from. We talk with Daniel Newman, Executive Director and Co-Founder of MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan research group illuminating the connection between money and politics, and Kim Alexander, President and Founder of the California Voter Foundation. (audio)

PG&E's Prop. 16 Ad Spending Riles Some

KCRA.com, April 6, 2010

Excerpt:

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is spending millions of dollars on a new television advertising campaign, calling for preserving the public's right to vote.

But critics say the Proposition 16 campaign is really about quashing PG&E's competition.

"Power to the people" is an old rallying cry from the 1960s. Today it applies to an expensive ballot fight bankrolled by PG&E. It's an outgrowth of a 2006 ballot fight in which PG&E spent millions to keep Yolo County customers from breaking away.

It sounds good -- so why are groups such as the League of Women Voters incensed over these ads?

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Critics say PG&E is really trying to stifle competition and protect its profits under the umbrella of voter rights.

"I think it's misleading, quite frankly. And that's why SMUD has joined with a number of other customer-owned utilities to challenge the initiative in court," Arlen Orchard, SMUD's general counsel, said.

Orchard said the measure would make it virtually impossible for nonprofit utilities like SMUD to expand. The campaign said it's the same standard as that for passing a local bond.

Veteran ballot-watcher Kim Alexander, from the California Voter Foundation, said all that PG&E money is no guarantee of success.

"I have a lot of confidence in California voters, that they are savvy, they're looking for who's behind this commercial, who's behind this campaign," Alexander said.

Alexander said the Prop. 16 funding is a good example of how rich special interests now dominate California's initiative process. But she points out that typically, only one out of three initiatives actually pass.

The measure is backed by groups like the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Taxpayers' Association -- both of which were unavailable for comment Monday. But all the funding itself comes from PG&E. (full story)

Electronic petition signature-gathering off to a shaky start

By Torey Van Oot, The Sacrcamento Bee, April 2, 2010

Excerpt:

A Silicon Valley startup is looking to give the clipboard-and-paper strategy for collecting petition signatures a 21st century makeover.

Verafirma is promoting technology to collect and verify signatures for initiative petitions using smart phone devices, such as iPhones and Google Droids, iPod Touches and computers.

Supporters say the change could revolutionize California's initiative process, enabling proponents to launch low-cost, grass-roots and Web-based campaigns to qualify for the ballot.

But the e-signature software has come under fire from critics, including the secretary of state, who say the digital petitions don't meet Election Code requirements and pose risks for fraud and privacy violations. And the effort recently suffered a legal blow when a judge indicated that he was inclined to reject a test petition submitted by a company founder.

Relying on the same technology used by banks and other institutions that accept digital signatures, Verafirma allows voters to use a touch screen to enter their John Hancock on a digital version of the initiative petition that is then submitted to county election officials for approval.

Developers say a driving force behind the idea is to lower the price tag for qualifying a measure for the ballot. Nearly all successful qualification efforts now rely on firms that charge $1 to $5 per signature to collect up to 694,354 valid voter signatures needed to secure a spot on the ballot.

"This can make it affordable for true grass-roots efforts that don't have access to the initiative game the way it's played now because it's so costly," said co-founder and Democratic consultant Jude Barry, who said using the technology would require "a fraction of the cost" of hiring a signature-gathering firm.

California Voter Foundation President Kim Alexander said the tool could spread the reach of campaigns while providing voters with more access to information about what they are signing.

"If it catches on, people can go and submit their signatures without having access to an actual physical initiative petition or waiting for a chance encounter to meet an initiative signature gatherer in a supermarket parking lot," Alexander said. "(It) would enable people who use iPhones to take their time and research the measure on their own schedule."

But Alexander, whose organization promotes the use of technology to improve the democratic process, also pointed to an array of security concerns, including how to ensure that an e-signature isn't copied onto multiple petitions without a voter's consent.

"The fundamental security problem is that elections officials don't have the technology in-house at this time to verify this form of signature," Alexander said. "People can come up with ideas for using technology in politics far faster than government can regulate it."

Proponents counter that an increasing number of counties already use digitization of voter signatures to verify handwritten signatures and that their encryption and security technology is safer than leaving a signature on a petition in the hands of a signature gatherer. (full story)

Decision 2010: Hot-button California initiatives to stir debate

By Mike Aldax, The San Francisco Examiner, March 24, 2010

Excerpt:

The primaries for California governor may be the main attraction in the upcoming June election, but there is also a menu of hot-button measures on the state ballot that are certain to spice things up, analysts say.

If you pay electric bills or drive a car in California, you are among those who will be affected by results of the June ballot, which include four measures that will certainly affect the majority of state residents.

“We don’t have any of those water cooler initiatives, the kind of things people will get worked up over, like Prop. 8,” said Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. “But I do think they are meaty issues that voters are going to want to dive into.”

The most fiercely debated measures include Proposition 17, which would allow insurance companies to base their prices on a driver’s history of insurance coverage, and Proposition 16, a Pacific Gas & Electric Co.-backed measure that would make it harder for local governments to form their own electric utilities.

A third measure, Proposition 13, would deliver a tax break for property owners for seismic retrofits, and the final two measures, Proposition 14 and Proposition 15, would change the primary elections process and launch a pilot campaign-funding process for secretary of state, respectively.

Aside from Prop. 13, every other measure has been the subject of intense debate recently. It may be a lot to handle for voters, but there is more information available online than ever before, said Alexander, driving the debate over hot-button races and issues in 2010. (full story)

Lawsuit seeks to have electronic signatures considered valid on petitions

The Palo Alto Daily News, March 17, 2010

Excerpt:

A major change in California's century-old voter initiative process could be on the line Thursday when a San Mateo County judge presides over a debate about whether it is legal for California voters to sign a statewide initiative petition digitally through a mobile device's touch screen.

The case pits Michael Ni, co-founder of a Silicon Valley start-up that has developed software for capturing electronic signatures, against government officials who say the election code does not allow for the technology.

"If you can gather signatures online and get around the political establishment, it's just one more way to bring about change in California," said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford who follows California politics.

Ni sued the county last month after Assessor-Clerk-Recorder Warren Slocum rejected an electronic signature Ni had captured using the software from his company, Verafirma, and submitted on a USB drive to qualify an initiative to legalize and tax marijuana.

Slocum said he supports the technology but could not determine whether the signature met the requirements of state elections laws, which is why he rejected it.

In court documents, the county argues that Ni signed an iPhone, then had Verafirma's software "stamp" his signature onto a digital image of a petition, violating the elections code requirement that a voter "personally affix" his or her signature to a petition.

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While Verafirma's founders say electronic signatures are more secure than handwritten ones, county and state officials counter that the technology hasn't been tested to prove it's fraud-proof.

"The complex issues presented in permitting use of electronic devices and the Internet to sign initiative petitions are best resolved in total by the Legislature, not in an incremental basis by the court in this case," wrote Deputy Attorney General Hiren Patel, who is representing the Secretary of State's Office.

Though Judge George Miram is expected to hear arguments from both sides, it is unclear whether he will rule Thursday on the legality of Ni's signature.

If "e-signatures" are found to be valid, they could "change the playing field enormously for how initiatives are qualified in California," said Kim Alexander, president and founder of the California Voter Foundation, a non-partisan group that advocates for technology that enhances the democratic process.

Allowing signatures to be gathered using the Internet could dramatically lower the cost of initiative campaigns, which generally must raise at least $1 million and sometimes $3 million or more to hire professional signature-gathering companies to qualify an initiative, Alexander said. (full story)

Opponents not rushing to spend against 'top two' primary system

By Torey Van Oot , Sacramento Bee, March 11, 2010

Excerpt:

Critics of Proposition 14 are eager to assail the ballot measure that would change California's primary system as a "backroom deal" that would derail the democratic process.

But with less than three months until voters decide whether to abolish party primaries, there is no major campaign to fight the measure, which the Legislature placed on the ballot as part of last year's budget package.

It's starting to look like opponents, including the state Democratic and Republican parties, aren't too eager to put their money where their mouths are.

"What do I care?" asked California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton, a vocal critic of the measure. "The Legislature put it on the ballot. If they think it's a bad idea, I think they ought to fight against it."

Proposition 14 would replace the current party primaries with a "top two" system in which the two candidates who receive the most votes in an open primary, regardless of their party affiliation, advance to a runoff election.

Supporters, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado, bill the measure as a pathway to electing more moderate candidates and easing partisan gridlock in Sacramento. Critics counter that eliminating party primaries and write-in candidates would sideline independent and third-party candidates and curtail voter choice in general elections.

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While the opposition campaign gets its ducks in line, the Yes on 14 campaign is ramping up support and a large cash cushion. The campaign, co-chaired by California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg, has reported more than $550,000 in contributions, with Hewlett-Packard, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Pacific Life Insurance Co. and philanthropist Eli Broad writing big checks to support the measure.
Proponents also have another deep-pocketed ally: Schwarzenegger.

"The governor has two priorities in the primary and the general election this year, and that's Prop. 14 and the water bond. So we would expect him to (financially) support this," Yes on 14 spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson said.

Opponents said they weren't worried about starting the campaign at a cash disadvantage.

"No one is going to make their mind up on Proposition 14 until the last three weeks in May," Low said.

But Kim Alexander, president of the non-partisan California Voter Foundation, said the rise of vote-by-mail ballots, especially in primaries, has added more pressure for campaigns to gear up early.

"The whole idea that you could hold on to your marbles to the very end and do a last-minute campaign to defeat something on the ballot has really gone out the window given the current composition of California voters," Alexander said.

Alexander noted, however, that a bigger bank account balance isn't always a golden ticket at the ballot.

"You can't win an initiative contest without money, but you can't win it with just money either," she said. "It takes more than just a deep pocket to get the measure passed."

Critics said they aren't deterred by the possibility of running the lesser funded campaign.

"The coalition opposing this measure is coming together," Nehring said. "Certainly the proponents will have vastly more resources under any scenario than the opponents. You're going to need that amount of money in order to push an idea that's this bad." (full story)

Electronic Signatures

by Jeffrey Callison, NPR - Insight, February 1, 2010

Should California election officials accept petitions that include electronic signatures gathered on iPhones? At least two initiatives circulating in the state have gathered or plan to gather electronic signatures. They say these signatures are both legal and secure. Insight's Jeffrey Callison speaks with California Voter Foundation President and Founder Kim Alexander and Sacramento County Registrar of Voters Jill Lavine about this devleopment. (audio)

It's not easy to get an initative on California's ballot

By Torey Van Oot , Sacramento Bee, December 28, 2009

Excerpt:

For $200 and a postage stamp, anyone can get a ballot measure petition approved to circulate in California.

With deadlines looming for the 2010 elections and the state in need of serious engine work, more than 50 proposals ranging from the serious to the ridiculous have been cleared to begin gathering signatures in hopes of making it onto the November ballot.

Titles and summaries for dozens more have been prepared by the attorney general's office.

The proposals include guaranteeing that children can sing Christmas carols in public schools, adding a 5-cent tax to each cigarette sold, and eliminating income and property taxes for residents 55 and older. Numerous measures are aimed at making sweeping changes to the budget process and other aspects of state government, including calling a convention to redraft the state constitution.

"I think people are very frustrated with the Legislature and have seen a lot of stalemate, and when you see stalemate, you see initiatives," said Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies. "People are concerned with the basic structure of government, so they want to change the structure of government."

That sense of frustration is what drove UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff, an expert in political message framing, to propose a measure that would lower the vote requirement for passing a budget or raising taxes from two-thirds to a majority vote.

To him, the idea seemed like a simple communicable fix to the "disgusting and miserable" state budget gridlock. Lakoff didn't see Democratic state lawmakers or party leadership step up to take action on the issue, so he decided to launch his own campaign to ask voters to approve the change.

He filed a 14-word initiative that he thought would "let the majority of voters in this state decide the future direction of the state. … At the last minute, I decided that if no one else was going to do it, I would," he said. "Then I found out that there was a tremendous amount to do (to qualify)."

Much of that workload lies in the costly task of collecting the hundreds of thousands of valid voter signatures needed to qualify a measure for the statewide ballot. Once a petition is cleared by the secretary of state, proponents have 150 days to collect the more than 430,000 signatures needed to put a statutory change on the ballot or hit the nearly 700,000 signatures needed to qualify a constitutional amendment.

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Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, said a crowded ballot can cause challenges for communicating to voters the implications of the various initiatives as well as which wealthy interests put up the cash to put the measure on the ballot.

"There's a lot of mystery already in voting in California, and then that problem is compounded with the initiatives process and the fact that we have so many state and local measures to vote on," she said.

The ballooning ballot and increased role of money in both the qualifying and campaigning process have prompted calls to update the initiative system, which was adopted in 1911 as a direct democracy fix for widespread corruption caused by the railroad industry's control over state politics.

"The history of the process is just the opposite of what has evolved over time," said Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, the co-chairman of a select legislative committee that is generating recommendations for improving state government, including the initiative system.

"I think there is certainly strong recognition by voters that it's really important to constrain special interests from capturing the initiative process," Feuer said.

Ideas for updating the system include offering proponents the option of lowering the signature threshold if they give the Legislature a role in a measure, requiring two-thirds voter approval for passing constitutional amendments and mandating that initiative proponents identify how new programs would be financed.

Others have suggested raising the fee for filing an initiative to lower processing costs for the state – an estimated $6,800 for the attorney general's office to prepare the title and summary describing each proposal – and discourage the submission of less serious initiatives that clog the system.

But despite voters feeling fatigued by the lengthy list of measures at the polls and concerns over the role of money in the process, getting them to change their cherished initiative system could be a difficult task in itself. Polls have consistently shown that while voters recognize the shortcomings of the process, huge majorities support it.

"California voters have a love-hate relationship with the initiative process," Alexander said. "People love to complain how difficult it is, but don't even think about taking it away. It is sacred in this state." (full story)

A chaotic year for California ballot propositions

By Eric Bailey, Los Angeles Times, December 27, 2009

Excerpt:

With heated contests looming for U.S. Senate, governor and other statewide posts, 2010 stands to be a blockbuster year in California politics.

The state could also see a bumper crop of ballot measures.

In recent weeks, nearly 90 proposed initiatives have been in the pipeline, elbowing to become the latest entrants in the state's century-old tradition of direct democracy.

Gay-rights activists, abortion foes, marijuana proponents and government-reform advocates are getting into the act of citizen lawmaking. Insurance companies and consumer groups appear poised to rumble.

There is also the possibility of a high-stakes proposition fight between business and labor interests that some pundits liken to state politics going nuclear.

If historical trends hold, many of the proposals will fail to garner enough support and voter signatures to qualify. But the state remains on track to potentially see dozens of measures on the ballot.

The record of 48 initiatives set in November 1914 -- in the era of Gov. Hiram Johnson, progressive politics and the birth of the ballot measure -- almost certainly is safe. But in a state with a rich tradition of lengthy and complex ballots, "2010 is going to be extraordinary," predicted Kim Alexander, founder of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation. "Voters are going to be cramming like never before."

So far just three ballot measures are set for the June primary election and only one has qualified for November. But scores more wait in the wings. State election officials have given more than 50 initiatives the green light to hit the streets for signature gathering, and dozens of others await legal approval.

"There used to be a joke that for $200 anyone could write an initiative," said Democratic strategist Gale Kaufman. "Now everyone has."

How else to explain a proposed initiative outlawing divorce, and another addressing Christmas music in schools? (full story)

Twitter to overhaul user list seen as partisan

By Don Thompson, Associated Press, November 16, 2009

Excerpt:

Social-networking site Twitter plans to end a service that links prominent message posters with new users, a service that was criticized in California because of perceived unfairness toward GOP gubernatorial candidates.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said Monday the San Francisco-based company will overhaul its "suggested users" list, which links Twitter users with a pool of about 500 celebrities, sports figures and politicians they might want to follow.

"That list will be going away," Stone said at a conference in Malaysia. "In its stead will be something that is more programmatically chosen, something that actually delivers more relevant suggestions."

Names on the suggested user list are selected by company officials. In California, Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls were placed on the list, a move that greatly boosted their number of followers. Republican candidates were left off until recently.

The difference in treatment drew outcries from good government groups and contributed to a decision by the California Fair Political Practices Commission to hold hearings next year. The commission plans to examine whether it needs to regulate how campaigns intersect with social media.

In the three weeks since an Associated Press story about the suggested user list, Twitter executives added all three of the Republican candidates seeking to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is termed out of office after next year.

- - - - -

The list's expansion drew praise from Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation. She wants to see the site continue as an avenue for political discussion, saying it can serve as a valuable tool for voters who are just starting to get engaged in next year's campaign season.

California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring, however, urged Twitter to drop politicians from its favorites list if it doesn't end the list entirely.

"To include political candidates among suggested users is begging for some government entity to come in and regulate it," Nehring said.

Barbara O'Connor, a professor of political communication at Sacramento State University who teaches classes on social networking and its influence on politics, said politicians could disappear naturally from the list if users are allowed to choose their own favorites. Surveys show most would not gravitate to candidates as their first choice, she said.

The effect on political campaigns still is uncertain, said consultants to Brown and to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom had 1.1 million followers, the most of any governor candidate. Yet it didn't translate into enough campaign funding to keep him from dropping out of the race this month, said Newsom adviser Garry South.

"They're not a magic bullet," South said of social networking sites. "You have to do all the new media stuff as well as all the old traditional campaign techniques."

The list already included a few national political figures from both parties, including former vice president Al Gore, Sen. John McCain and former House speaker Newt Gingrich.

Stone did not say what kind of service would take the place of the suggested user list but said it could be tailored to new users' interests. In an e-mail, Twitter spokeswoman Jenna Sampson said the company could provide no more details. (full story)

Herdt: California's disconnect from democracy grows

By Timm Herdt, Ventura County Star, November 11, 2009

Excerpt:

There’s a new study out this week that documents the extent to which California has transitioned to a new way of voting, one that has created a pool of 6 million voters who may participate in every future election but never again set foot inside a polling place.

These are people who have signed up to be permanent mail-in voters, and their numbers are growing at a breathtaking pace: from 2.7 million in the 2004 election, to 4 million in 2006 to 5.6 million in 2008. They now represent more than a third of all California voters.

Not surprisingly, voters who automatically receive ballots in the mail are much more likely to actually vote than those who have to either specifically request a mail ballot or get themselves to a polling booth on Election Day.

In his paper on the growth in permanent mail voters published in this month’s Survey Practice, a journal for pollsters, Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo notes that turnout among permanent mail voters was significantly higher than total voter turnout in the last two statewide general elections. In 2006, when overall turnout was 56.2 percent, the voting rate of permanent mail voters was 77.7 percent. In 2008, the comparable numbers were 79.4 percent and 86.3 percent.

In low-profile elections the difference is even more striking. In last May’s statewide special election, overall turnout was just 28.4 percent. But almost half, or 48.6 percent, of permanent mail voters returned their ballots.

- - - - - - -

Kim Alexander, founder of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, says permanent mail voting may be exacerbating the lack of diversity among California voters. “Policy-makers need to be mindful of that,” she said.

Alexander notes that the impulse of county elections officials — who now must conduct essentially two elections every Election Day, one through the mail and the other in person — has been to reduce the number of polling places and, in many cases, to urge that voting be conducted entirely by mail.

“Just because the vote-by-mail rate keeps going up doesn’t mean it’s time to start closing polling places,” Alexander said. “All voters should be able to vote in the way they’re most comfortable.”

Alexander said DiCamillo’s data also reveal the importance of getting elections officials in every county to uniformly promote vote-by-mail registration.

Until very recently, officials in Los Angeles County — the state’s largest and most diverse — had been decidedly cool to mail voting and did nothing to promote permanent mail registration. The result is striking: DiCamillo’s data show that LA County voters account for only 10 percent of permanent mail voters but 32 percent of all other voters.

The Voter Foundation not long ago commissioned a survey of 1,000 registered but infrequent voters. It found the No. 1 reason they cite for not voting regularly is that they don’t have time on Election Day. Yet, more than half were unfamiliar with mail-in voting. “That was kind of astonishing,” Alexander said.

DiCamillo’s study shows that the popularity of permanent-mail voting has continued to increase dramatically even nine years after the option was established. It’s not going away.

Little light shines on politicians’ side funds

By Sam Skolnik, Las Vegas Sun, October 5, 2009

Excerpt:

Since 2000, Mayor Oscar Goodman has formed two political action committees with the stated goal of revitalizing downtown Las Vegas.

In 2005, then-North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon formed his NLVPAC to “promote good leadership to benefit North Las Vegas.”

It’s difficult to know whether these PACs have achieved their aims. Nevada law allows political action committees to gather donations and — with the exception of donations to political candidates — spend that money without any public disclosure or limit.

Critics say those laws, which are among the weakest in the nation, deprive voters of potentially important information about who is giving money to and potentially currying the favor of elected officials.

PACs are often used as a way for political donors looking to support a candidate or elected official to quietly “get around contribution limits,” said Kim Alexander, project director for the Campaign Disclosure Project.

Montandon and Goodman aren’t the only Nevada politicians with PACs.

And though both are abiding by the laws governing the committees, critics question whether these two local politicians with an eye on Carson City are operating them in the best interest of voters.

Montandon is an announced candidate for governor, and Goodman is weighing a bid to become the state’s chief executive.

- - - - -

According to Goodman, OPAC’s donations have all gone to worthy purposes, including local arts groups and other nonprofit organizations in need of money. It has given to the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Whirlygig, the nonprofit group that sponsors the First Friday arts walks downtown, he said.

City-related entities in need of cash assistance also have benefited, Goodman said. That has included $10,000 to the Fifth Street School for its unveiling celebration, and gifts to aid small conventions held here of city attorneys and city clerks offices from across the country.

The biggest contribution made by Goodman’s PACs is believed to be a $50,000 donation in February 2007 to Keep Memory Alive, the foundation for what was then called the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute.

A couple of records related to Goodman’s first PAC were filed in 2000. They showed that PAC had received $30,110 in contributions. The largest, for $25,000, came from Goodman’s mayoral campaign committee. The rest were primarily in the form of 10 checks of $500 from various real estate groups with an identical Buffalo Drive address.

The groups appear to be connected to local development company Focus Property Group.

Attorney Mark Fiorentino, who handles government affairs for Focus, said he recalled being asked to donate to OPAC soon after it was formed. PAC officials “were very clear,” he said, that the donations would go toward aiding the community, rather than political efforts.

City records show that Goodman’s first PAC did make at least one political contribution. On March 18, 2002, the PAC gave $5,110 to Goodman’s campaign fund.

Goodman said he makes all the decisions regarding OPAC, and not former Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack, whom he named as the group’s executive director in 2005.

Both Goodman and Mack said Mack was not paid a salary for his efforts, though Mack noted that he had been reimbursed for expenses. He said he couldn’t recall how much.

Campaign reform experts say determining which groups or causes might receive PAC money is important, but figuring out exactly who is giving to these groups is much more important. That’s because PAC donors in Nevada trying to influence an elected official can do so much more effectively — in private and without limits — than they could by simply giving to the official’s campaign fund.

“That’s why sunshine is so important,” Alexander said. (full story)

Low turnout could put mail voters in majority

By John Wildermuth, San Francisco Chronicle, May 17, 2009

Excerpt:

Tuesday's statewide special election could be the second in state history where most of the voters cast their ballots by mail, but that is not good news for turnout numbers.

In the state's nonpresidential primary last June, nearly 60 percent of the votes came in by mail but total turnout was only 28 percent, the lowest ever for a statewide vote.

"Mail voters might be a majority next Tuesday, but it will be an anomaly," said Kim Alexander, president and founder of the California Voter Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization promoting the responsible use of technology in voting.

"While the actual number of mail voters doesn't fluctuate that much, the percentage does," she added. "In a high- turnout election like November's presidential, the mail voters are a smaller fraction of the total."

In this week's special election, which features six measures stemming from the state budget deal struck in February, no one is predicting anything like November's 79 percent turnout or even the 57 percent who showed up for the February 2008 presidential primary.

- - - - - - -

An election featuring ballot measures only, regardless of how important, doesn't generate the same voter excitement as a race featuring a well-known candidate and an important office - president, governor or senator - at the top of the ballot, said Alexander.

Schwarzenegger's decision to release the devastating budget details just days before the election points out one of the problems with mail voting.

Up until the day of the election, "news stories are being produced, ads are coming out, more information is becoming available," said Alexander. "Maybe the governor's budget plan changed someone's mind, but if they've already voted by mail, they're out of luck."

While Alexander and other election reformers would like to see the state count every ballot that's postmarked by election day, that's not the way it works in California. Ballots that arrive after the 8 p.m. close of the polls remain unopened and uncounted. It's already too late to put a ballot in the mail with any guarantee that it will reach election officials on time, so voters who still have a mail ballot and want to make sure it's tallied will need to drop it off at the county election office or at the polls on Tuesday. (full story)

Funding the Propositions

Jeffrey Callison, Capital Public Radio, May 14, 2009

Even though election turnout is expected to be low, the amount of money being spent on the campaigns is not. Who's paying for these ads and just how much money is funding the fight? Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation tells you about it. (full story)

Will Voters Turn Out on Election Day?

Sharon Ito, Live Online, News10, May 11,2009

Excerpt:

On Monday's Live_Online at 11 a.m., Kim Alexander with the California Voter Foundation said most voters don't seem enthusiastic in returning to the polls for the second time in six months.

Voters will decide six propositions, Props 1A-1F, which attempt to fix the state's budget mess and punish lawmakers if they can't pass a spending plan.

Alexander said if most of the measures fail, the state will be back at square one trying to dig out of a $42 billion hole. She said Gov. Schwarzenegger will have no choice but to declare a budget emergency, and lawmakers will have to make even tougher choices involving more cuts to government services, higher taxes or both. (full story)

Redistricting Reform

Jeffrey Callison, Insight, KXJZ, March 6, 2009

What's happening in redistricting reform? Last November, California voters passed Proposition 11 which took the right to draw district boundaries away from lawmakers and gave it to a new Citizens Redistricting Commission. The commission doesn't yet exist and the redistricting won't happen until 2011, but a lot is happening behind the scenes and the effect of the redistricting changes could be significant. (full story}

Report finds fault with Premier election system

By Kat Zambon, electionline Weekly, March 5, 2009

Excerpt:

The software component of voting systems developed by Diebold Election Systems, Inc. (now Premier Election Solutions, Inc.) has errors that allow operators to delete ballots without warning and manipulate audit trail logs according to a March 3 report by Debra Bowen, California secretary of state.

These errors caused the system to drop 197 ballots from official November 2008 election results in Humboldt County, Calif.

Either of these errors should have kept the system from receiving certification, the report said. The software, Global Election Management System (GEMS) version 1.18.19, was certified by the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) in February 2004.

While the secretary of state was unaware the system had the potential to drop ballots, company e-mails show that Premier Election Solutions learned of the problem in October 2004. Instead of alerting NASED, the secretary of state or the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Premier emailed election officials in the 11 California counties using the system with directions to avoid losing ballots without explaining why they were necessary.

"Secretary Bowen was certainly surprised and deeply concerned that a voting system manufacturer would not notify the secretary of state‘s office and be more up front about something they‘d known about for several years," Nicole Winger, deputy secretary for communications in the secretary of state‘s office said. "Those are both alarming discoveries."

- - - - - - -

March 17 hearing scheduled
Bowen will hold a hearing in Sacramento on March 17 to discuss the "deck zero" problem and allow for public comment on possibly withdrawing approval for GEMS version 1.18.19.

"Anyone can publicly testify and raise concerns or dispel myths and after that public hearing, Secretary Bowen will take into account everything that she and her staff have learned and decide whether to take action against Premier," who will also be invited to testify, Winger said.

"This is the second time Diebold‘s being required to come address the secretary of state on a security problem," Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation founder and president said. In 2004, former secretary of state Kevin Shelley found that Diebold had installed software that was uncertified for use in California elections, a violation of state law that led to the system‘s decertification, she said.

"This vendor has a poor track record when it comes to election security in California," Alexander added. "I think election officials will be less forgiving towards Diebold since this is the second time they‘ve had a problem." (full story)

Key politicians slow to file electronic campaign reports

By Chase Davis, Des Moines Register, February 22, 2009

More than half of Iowa's lawmakers, along with state officials such as Gov. Chet Culver, Attorney General Tom Miller and Secretary of State Michael Mauro, continue to file their campaign finance reports on paper - despite efforts two years ago to modernize the state's reporting system.

A Des Moines Register analysis of 2008 state campaign finance reports and how they were filed also shows the same elected officials who are scrambling for budget-cutting ideas are costing taxpayers about $5,000 a year by filing on paper instead of using electronic reports.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/campaignfinance" style="text-decoration : underline">New search: Check our database to see who's giving and who's receiving campaign cash

In addition, some critics wonder whether politicians who still opt for manual filing enjoy a taxpayer-subsidized advantage against those who have adopted electronic filing by choice.

"There are legitimate reasons to give extra time" for politicians to adopt electronic filing, said Arthur Sanders, chairman of the Politics and International Relations Department at Drake University. "But there are also gamesmanship reasons."

Well-funded officials such as the governor should have no excuse, he said, because their campaign staffs should have the resources or expertise to adopt the online system, despite technical difficulties.

In 2007, lawmakers moved to modernize the state's campaign filing system by setting two deadlines for online filing. New candidates entering state politics in 2010 or later will be required to file online immediately. Incumbents will have until 2012.

- - - - - - -

Candidates for state office must file campaign reports at least four times during an election year, including days before primary and general elections. Campaign reform advocates argue that data-entry delays makes it more difficult to analyze manual filers' contributions and expenses in the days before an election.

"Politicians know full well (electronic disclosure) will make their reports more easily accessible to the public," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, which has studied state campaign filing systems nationwide.

"Politicians are reluctant to stick their necks out when their opponents don't."

As states have moved their campaign finance systems to the Internet, some have argued that electronic filing is critical to making campaigns more transparent. Others say sophisticated electronic systems burden candidates who lack technical expertise.

Of the 156 currently serving lawmakers who filed campaign reports last month, 74 used the electronic system. The rest - including House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque - sent in reports using e-mail, fax machines, hand delivery or mail.

Charlie Smithson, executive director of the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, said his small staff hires a local firm to enter paper reports into the state's database, which the board posts online. The firm charges 14 cents for each contribution or expenditure workers type in.

At that rate, typing in the more than $1 million in donations that Culver reported in his January filing, plus his campaign expenses, would have cost about $108. (full story)

Prop 8 Donor Web Site Shows Disclosure Law Is 2-Edged Sword

by Brad Stone, New York Times, February 8, 2009

Excerpt:

For the backers of Proposition 8, the state ballot measure to stop single-sex couples from marrying in California, victory has been soured by the ugly specter of intimidation.

Some donors to groups supporting the measure have received death threats and envelopes containing a powdery white substance, and their businesses have been boycotted.

The targets of this harassment blame a controversial and provocative Web site, eightmaps.com.

The site takes the names and ZIP codes of people who donated to the ballot measure — information that California collects and makes public under state campaign finance disclosure laws — and overlays the data on a Google map.

Visitors can see markers indicating a contributor’s name, approximate location, amount donated and, if the donor listed it, employer. That is often enough information for interested parties to find the rest — like an e-mail or home address. The identity of the site’s creators, meanwhile, is unknown; they have maintained their anonymity.

Eightmaps.com is the latest, most striking example of how information collected through disclosure laws intended to increase the transparency of the political process, magnified by the powerful lens of the Web, may be undermining the same democratic values that the regulations were to promote.

With tools like eightmaps — and there are bound to be more of them — strident political partisans can challenge their opponents directly, one voter at a time. The results, some activists fear, could discourage people from participating in the political process altogether.

That is why the soundtrack to eightmaps.com is a loud gnashing of teeth among civil libertarians, privacy advocates and people supporting open government. The site pits their cherished values against each other: political transparency and untarnished democracy versus privacy and freedom of speech.

“When I see those maps, it does leave me with a bit of a sick feeling in my stomach,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, which has advocated for open democracy. “This is not really the intention of voter disclosure laws. But that’s the thing about technology. You don’t really know where it is going to take you.”

Ms. Alexander and many Internet activists have good reason to be queasy. California’s Political Reform Act of 1974, and laws like it across the country, sought to cast disinfecting sunlight on the political process by requiring contributions of more than $100 to be made public. (full story)

L.A. campaigns hoping to tap into Obama's pool of new voters

By Phil Willon and Jennifer Oldham, Los Angeles TImes, February 4, 2009

Excerpt:

Candidates in the March 3 primary election in Los Angeles have zeroed in on the thousands of newly registered voters who lined up at the polls in November's presidential election, hoping to boost turnout in an off-year race that lacks a big-ticket political slugfest.

This year's mayor's race lacks the sizzle of the 2005 election, when Antonio Villaraigosa snatched the office from incumbent James K. Hahn in a crowded and hotly contested campaign. That leaves the wide-open races for city attorney and controller, as well as a $3-billion solar energy ballot measure, to tantalize the citywide electorate.

No one expects to see anything approaching the 80% record turnout of November, but the campaigns hope the post-election Barack Obama euphoria in this heavily Democratic city will motivate enough voters to come near the 24% turnout in the 2005 primary.

The campaign supporting Measure B, the city's $3-billion solar energy proposal, is specifically targeting newly registered voters with telephone calls and campaign mailers, financed primarily by local labor organizations. Groups affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union have poured $270,000 into the pro-Measure B campaign, and will be one of the solar program's biggest beneficiaries because they represent the city workers who will install the units.

"Any other year, in a March election like this we would be expecting alow turnout. Barack Obama's election has brought in a broad new coalition into the Los Angeles electorate," said Sarah Leonard, spokeswoman for Measure B. "It's a new pot of voters that we believe are predisposed to support our measure."

To help do so, the organization has enlisted Mitchell Schwartz, who ran Obama's California campaign.

- - - - - - - - -

Ace Smith, veteran campaign manger for Villaraigosa and Weiss, said he expected turnout to be higher than many anticipate. Because of that, he said, it would be a mistake for candidates to focus their campaign message only on small pockets of voters, especially in a citywide contest.

"You cannot be so narrow to just think about the people who are turning out. You have to have a discussion with the entire city," Smith said. "Everyone in the city . . . is affected."

The city's primary is just the first in an another unusually high number of off-year elections in 2009, including a March 24 race for the state Senate's 26th District seat vacated by Mark Ridley-Thomas, who was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last fall.

If U.S. Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D- El Monte) is confirmed as Labor secretary, officials will have to schedule an election to replace her. State leaders have also signaled that they may set a special election to deal with the budget crisis. Plus, the city's general election is May 19.

Still, November's presidential election may have proven powerful enough to overcome any election fatigue.

"It's not just that people voted in that election, it's that people saw that their vote made a difference," said Kim Alexander, president and founder of the California Voter Foundation, a nonpartisan voter-education group. "They're now in the cross-hairs of registrars' offices and are more likely to get campaign mailers and candidate information."

Low turnout in off-year races also often leads to the argument that they should be combined with state and federal elections when voter participation is higher. But then officials worry that the local races will get short shrift, Alexander said.

Arleen Taylor, chief of the city clerk's Election Division, said county elections officials have opposed adding Los Angeles to a consolidated county-city ballot, in part, because the ballot would be enormous and difficult for voters to digest. Taylor said that city officials also were concerned the Los Angeles races and ballot measures would be buried too low in the ballot.

"Still, it comes up every two years," Taylor said. "I'm sure it'll come up again." (full story)

Calif initiative campaigns cost $227 million

by Steve Lawrence, Associated Press, February 3, 2009

Excerpt:

The rest of California's economy was slumping, but the state remained a treasure-trove last fall for campaign consultants and others who make money off political races.

Led by the heated fight over gay marriage, campaigns spent $227.2 million to pass or defeat 11 propositions on California's November ballot, according to post-election contribution reports that had to be filed with the secretary of state's office by midnight Tuesday.

That's short of the record but still represents a huge investment in television and radio advertisements and other campaign spending.

"That's a lot of money," said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based think tank that studies campaign finance issues.

The record for spending on ballot measures in one California election was set in 2006, when donors poured $333 million into campaigns for and against 13 propositions on the November ballot.

A 12th proposal on last November's ballot, which authorized the sale of $900 million in bonds to finance veterans' home loans, attracted little or no spending.

- - - - - - - -

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, a nonprofit organization, said the fundraising for and against Proposition 8 was unlike anything she has seen in her 15 years tracking campaign spending.

"It was a truly nationwide, grassroots effort on both sides," she said.

The record for spending on a single California proposition also was set in 2006, when $154.3 million was spent in the fight over Proposition 87, which would have imposed a tax on oil production.

California ballot initiatives often generate huge amounts of spending because the effect — win or lose — can ripple across the nation.

"And industry groups that are affected by these measures know that the stakes are high, that if something pops out of the initiative process in California it's something that other states and the federal government will notice," Alexander said.

Industry groups weighed in heavily on two unsuccessful energy-related measures on last November's ballot, propositions 7 and 10.

Three utility companies, Edison International, PG&E Corp. and Sempra Energy, provided almost all of the $29.8 million spent to defeat Proposition 7, which would have required utilities to get at least half their electricity from renewable energy sources such as windmills and solar panels by 2025. (full story)

California To Release Names Of Prop 8 Supporters

by Scott Shafer, NPR - Day to Day, February 2, 2009

Excerpt:

California officials will release the names Monday of over 1,000 people who donated money to support the passage of Proposition 8, the controversial ban on same-sex marriages. Proponents of the initiative sought to withhold disclosure of late campaign donors, claiming those people risk retaliation. (audio)

Prop. 8 supporters want donors anonymous

By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, January 26, 2009

Excerpt:

Sponsors of California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage asked a federal judge Thursday to overturn state laws that require disclosure of the names and employers of campaign donors of $100 or more, saying the laws invite harassment and chill free speech.

The mandatory disclosure of thousands of contributors to Proposition 8 on the secretary of state's Web site has led to numerous acts of vandalism, boycotts and even death threats, lawyers for the Prop. 8 campaign said in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

"This harassment is made possible because of California's unconstitutional campaign finance disclosure rules as applied to ballot measure committees where even donors of as little as $100 must have their names, home addresses and employers listed on public documents," said Ron Prentice, chairman of ProtectMarriage.com, the Yes on 8 committee.

The suit also seeks to eliminate all campaign disclosure requirements for ballot measures after an election - barring the state from requiring any additional contribution reports, and requiring officials to purge all pre-election reports from their public files.

Whatever legitimate need the state might have to collect and publish information on contributors to a ballot measure campaign "ceases to exist the moment the last ballot is cast," the lawsuit said.

- - - - - - - -

But one supporter of the disclosure laws said they're worth the discomfort they sometimes cause for contributors.

"I think California's law does a good job balancing the right to anonymous free speech with voters' right to make informed decisions," said Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation, which promotes online access to campaign finance information. "Voters need to follow the money and find out who's backing a campaign."

The leader of a group that has organized boycotts against major contributors to Prop. 8 said sponsors of the measure knew the disclosure rules when they were gathering signatures.

"They started this fight in 30 states by going to the ballot and winning," said Fred Karger, founder of an organization called Californians Against Hate. "Now the gay community is fighting back and seeing who gave the money. People are choosing who they want to give their business to ... Now they're (the Prop. 8 campaign) looking for sympathy."

Mandatory disclosure of campaign contributions has been a central feature of California political regulation since the 1970s. All donors of $100 or more to state or local campaigns must be publicly identified, along with their address, occupation and employer.

A 1997 law requiring the information to be posted on a state Web site exempted donors' addresses, but those are available at the secretary of state's office and sometimes can be gleaned from other sources.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld mandatory campaign disclosure laws in 1976, including a requirement to identify donors of as little as $10. That ruling cited the public's need to know about possible sources of corruption of political candidates, but comparable reasons also support disclosure of contributors to ballot measures, said Richard Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and an authority on election law. (full story)

Provisional ballots may decide outcome for some elections

By Timm Herdt, Ventura County Star, November 11, 2008

Excerpt:

At 7:55 on election night last week, five minutes before polling in California closed, a man rushed into the Ventura County Elections Division office and demanded his opportunity to take part in a historic presidential election.

He acknowledged he was not registered but insisted he be allowed to vote. To avoid a confrontation, a clerk gave him a provisional ballot, one that will be thrown out after it is reviewed because the man was not legally entitled to vote.

Under less urgent circumstances, in firehouses and churches and schools across California, such scenes were no doubt repeated thousands of times last week. People who never registered, caught up in the excitement of Election Day, still insisted on casting votes.

"Provisional ballots are a fail-safe option for poll workers who don't have time to deal at length with one person," said Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation.

To avoid a polling-place confrontation, an individual whose name is not on the voter roster is simply given a provisional ballot. Sometimes those people are not entitled to vote and their ballots will ultimately be discarded.

"I suspect that happened to a much greater degree in this election than in others," Alexander said. (full story)

L.A. County Registrar Vows Easier Voting

KFI AM 640, November 10, 2008

Excerpt:

Election officials say the recent election taught them lessons about how to make voting easier. Los Angeles County's Registrar Dean Logan says there's no room for complacency. He's lined up a list of post-voting priorities that he says will make the next big election run more smoothly. Logan says he'd like to replace voting equipment, increase early voting locations and streamline mail-in ballots. Logan says this fall's record number of new voters, vote-by-mail ballots, and high turnout, combined to bring election frustrations front and center. Kim Alexander with the California Voter Foundation says one of the problems is that voting rules aren't consistent. "And that creates a lot of confusion for voters because they hear about what's gone on in a neighboring county, and they want to do the same thing. And they find they can't in their own county," Alexander says. "So I think we need more uniformity in polling place practices, and registration practices across the state." The Registrar in Sacramento County says the deadline for requesting a mail-in ballot should be moved to give officials more time to send ballots and voters more time to return them. (full story)

L.A. County election czar's to-do list includes reforms

By Jennifer Oldham , Los Angeles Times, November 10, 2008

Excerpt:

Even after he records the final results from Tuesday's historic presidential election, Los Angeles County's election czar isn't likely to get any rest.

When he's done counting roughly 16% of the ballots left over from Nov. 4, Dean Logan, the county's registrar-recorder, will turn his attention toward improving the democratic process for the next generation. On his list: replacing the county's much-maligned voting equipment, increasing the number of early voting sites and streamlining mail-in balloting in the nation's largest voting district.

"There's no room for any complacency in this process," said Logan, 41, in a post-election interview.

By most accounts Logan did a good job, handling the highest number of voters -- about 3.5 million -- to ever turn out for an election in L.A. County. He had already overcome two other major challenges this year -- including validating about 38,000 disputed ballots from the Feb. 3 primary and processing a flood of same-sex marriage ceremonies in the summer.

"I want to personally applaud the registrar's office," said Jackie Dupont-Walker, president of Ward Economic Development Corp., a community-based group in Los Angeles that served as a polling place last week. "I know they did extraordinary things."

But voters' rights advocates and Logan acknowledged that a record number of voter registrations and applications to vote by mail, combined with the high voter turnout, brought to the forefront long-standing problems with the voting process:

• Voter registration and vote-by-mail application deadlines that are too close to election day, making it difficult for workers to enter data in time and leaving no room to correct errors.

• Federal and state election laws that confuse voters and poll workers.

• Alternative voting methods such as early voting and processing vote-by-mail applications that require more resources to avoid glitches.

Problems arose in some Los Angeles County precincts, including Dupont-Walker's. At least half the voters who arrived at her polling place -- about 200 people in her estimation -- found they weren't listed in poll books or on supplemental lists, even though they received sample ballots.

Many of these residents joined about 243,700 county voters who cast provisional ballots because of polling place problems.

Election officials count provisional ballots by hand during the 28-day canvass period following election day. Such counts are time-consuming and require workers to verify that the person who cast a provisional ballot was registered to vote. To do so, clerks check the signature on the envelope that contains the provisional ballot against the signature on the voter's registration form.

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Officials could also reduce the need for provisional ballots, voting rights advocates said, by rolling back the deadline to apply to vote by mail, which falls one week before the election.

This deadline ensures that some voters won't get their ballots in time to send them back.

"What would be better would be to publicize early voting and set up early voting programs so people who find out two weeks before that they can't go to the polls have an option to vote," said Kim Alexander, president and founder of the California Voter Foundation, a nonpartisan voter-education group.

Only one early voting site outside the registrar's Norwalk office was available in the 4,084-square-mile county.

Logan said the county's 706 different ballot groups -- each featuring a unique combination of measures and contests tied to a specific area -- along with three elections this year made it unworkable to offer more sites.

The registrar said he hoped to replace the county's voting equipment with technology that would make it easier to conduct early voting countywide.

But without federal or state standards and equipment, Logan said it was up to his office to push lawmakers to devise system requirements and then to form a consensus on how to implement them in the county. (full story)

Public records slower to follow information age

By Ryan McCarth, Marysville Appeal-Democrat, November 9, 2008

Excerpt:

Jane Marshall looked at a computer screen at the Yuba County Superior Court and said four words not often heard in the halls of justice.

"This is totally cool," Marshall said Thursday of the public documents available at courthouse computers.

An investigative technician with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Marshall makes her way to courts around Northern California to review public records.

Yuba County scanning documents that can be accessed at three computers for the public puts the courthouse ahead of the paper files that, in the digital age, still dominate most halls of justice, including Sutter County Superior Court.

But the scanned documents don't mean that public records from the Yuba courts can be viewed online by people at work or in their homes. Court records, like campaign contribution statements filed during political campaigns, still require a trip to government offices to read.

Weather conditions in Moscow can be accessed immediately on the Internet, but you have to drive downtown to find out who's contributed to the campaigns of officeholders in Yuba or Sutter counties — and to see what legal actions may have been filed against cities and counties, as well as all other court records.

Kim Alexander, who in 1994 started the Sacramento-based California Voter Foundation after realizing the opportunities the Internet provides to inform the public, said campaign contributions should be online.

"Voters like following the money," Alexander said. "The public deserves to be able to access that data."

Looking at a candidate's donors is a great clue to what they'll do in office, she noted. (full story)

Mailer has Measure S supporters 'furious'

By Garth Stapley, The Modesto Bee, November 07, 2008

People incensed at an anonymous 11th-hour mailer blasting Stanislaus County's proposed road tax may never find out if the flier was legal or ethical, or if it even made a difference.

The fate of Measure S lies in a Modesto warehouse, where election workers continue sorting through provisional and dropped-off vote-by-mail ballots that could take a week to process. Unofficial returns on Election Day showed 65.88 percent "yes" votes, a mere 0.79 percentage point short of victory with thousands of ballots yet to count.

Some supporters are relaxing their crossed fingers long enough to fume at the late mailer's "dirty tricks." Whoever sent them provided no identification other than a return address reading "Now For the Truth" with a Modesto post office box number.

What's so bad about that? The post office box belongs to a Measure S supporter.

"I'm furious," said Dick Hagerty, a Bee community columnist and longtime volunteer for various nonprofit causes. "(The senders) are cowards, thieves, lawbreakers and scumbags."

Hagerty is chairman of the Stanislaus Economic Development and Workforce Alliance, whose members worked feverishly for Yes on S and its unsuccessful predecessor in 2006, Measure K. He offered his post office box for use during a Yes on S strategy session, and several mailers listed it for their return address.

"I am offended. (Opponents) took something that belongs to me," fumed Hagerty, who said he discovered the chicanery when he was greeted by about 10 returned "No to S" fliers upon opening his post office box on Election Day.

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Anonymous political speech is protected by the First Amendment as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voters Foundation. But she questioned whether using someone's return address without permission constitutes mail fraud.

As for ethical considerations, she said, "It's really a shame that people feel they have to resort to these kinds of tactics to win a campaign."

Robert Stern, president of the Center for Government Studies in Los Angeles, called the deception "modified dirty tricks" because most recipients would not be expected to recognize the return address as belonging to someone else. And that doesn't affect the clear message of the sender, who urged people to vote against Measure S, he said.

California Fair Political Practices Commission spokesman Roman Porter refused specific comment. Speaking hypothetically, though, he confirmed that his investigators would have little interest in a complaint against an unknown party spending an unknown amount of money to send an unknown quantity of fliers

Meanwhile, Measure S watchers are "anxious to get the ballot count completed to see if in fact we're able to move forward with many transportation projects," said Stanislaus County Chief Executive Officer Rick Robinson. The half-cent sales tax increase could provide $700 million over 20 years. (full story)

Millions of votes left to be counted in California

By Amy Taxin, Associated Press, November 5, 2008

Excerpt:

A record number of voters and last-minute flood of absentee ballots left millions of votes to be counted Wednesday and several California races too close to call.

Election officials worked through the night and morning to finish counting roughly 10.4 million ballots cast by voters at the polls or in early mail-in voting.

But California officials will spend the next month poring over several million absentee and provisional ballots — which could hold the key to a tight race over a state proposition to revamp redistricting procedures and for a Northern California congressional seat.

Election experts say between 2.6 million and 3 million remain to be tallied among absentee ballots that arrived too late to count, were dropped at polling places or provisional ballots handed out to voters whose status could not immediately be verified.

"If we did succeed in even just keeping pace with 2004 turnout levels, we added half a million voters to the process this election — and the counties felt that," said Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation.

A surge in voter registration the last two months pushed California's voter rolls to a new peak of 17.3 million and led officials to add poll workers and order more ballots.

Many election officials predicted turnout would cross 80 percent in their counties due to voter excitement over the hotly contested race between Democrat Barack Obama, who will be the country's first black president, and Republican rival John McCain.

The state reported 76 percent voter turnout in 2004. (full story)

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Few problems reported in area despite record turnout

By Karen de Sá and Lisa Fernandez, San Jose Mercury News, November 4, 2008

Excerpt:

Record-high voting in the Bay Area on Tuesday mostly defied predictions of unwieldy waits and overwhelmed polls. But in Santa Clara County, concerns about touch-screen voting machines will likely increase following significant malfunctions.

Fifty-seven of the county's Sequoia Voting Systems machines failed on Election Day, resulting in hourslong delays before replacements arrived. State officials decertified electronic machines for widespread use in California last year amid reliability concerns; on Tuesday, each of the county's 785 polling places was equipped with a single machine for use by the disabled.

"We've had technical problems before, but we haven't had to resort to getting a replacement out or leaving a polling place without a machine at all," said election office spokesman Matt Moreles. He noted that voting at the affected precincts continued on paper ballots.

California Voter Foundation president Kim Alexander called the glitch "concerning" and said it marred an otherwise largely problem-free election statewide. "It underscores the ongoing challenges we face in California attempting to implement computerized voting," she said. "If Santa Clara County were still using touch screens as its primary election system, you bet it would have been a huge problem." (full story)

Starbucks Modifies Election Day Free Coffee Offer After Inquiry

By Sharon Ito, News10, Nov. 3, 2008

Excerpt:

Starbucks got the word that offering free coffee to people who vote on Election Day violated the law, so now the coffee company is offering a free cup to anyone who asks on November 4.

Starbucks' spokeswoman Tara Darrow, sent this email response following an inquiry by News10 into the legality of its free coffee for voters:

"We've been excited by the number of positive responses received about our free coffee offer. To ensure we are in compliance with election law, we are extending our offer to all customers who request a tall brewed coffee. We're pleased to honor our commitment to communities on this important Election Day. We hope there is a record turnout on Tuesday and look forward to celebrating with our customers over a great cup of coffee."

On Monday's Live_Online at 11 a.m. with News10's Sharon Ito, Kim Alexander with the non-partisan California Voter Foundation raised the red flag about Starbucks' election day campaign.

Alexander said offering incentives to vote, even a free cup of coffee, is against state and federal law.

The California Secretary of State's spokeswoman, Nicole Winger, also confirmed Starbucks' offer of a free cup to voters was well-intentioned, but violates election rules. The free cup to anyone who asks on election day is legal.

During the online conversation, Alexander said it's quite possible 80 percent of registered voters will cast ballots in California. That works out to 14 million voters.

Unfortunately some ballots won't be counted because of a common mistake made by mail-in voters.

Alexander said the postmark on the return envelope doesn't matter. If your mail-in ballot is not received by county election officials by the time the polls close at 8 p.m. on November 4, you're out of luck. Your ballot won't be counted.

So by this late date, don't drop your mail-in ballot at the post office. Instead, you'll need to hand-deliver your ballot to any precinct in the county in which you're registered before 8 p.m. Tuesday. (full story)

Record voter turnout may create record pain

By Troy Anderson, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Nov. 1, 2008

Excerpt:

With record numbers of people expected to inundate the polls Tuesday, voting experts are concerned the turnout may overwhelm the system, resulting in long lines and short-tempered voters.

"Our biggest problem going into this election is that we may not be able to meet the demand," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voters Foundation.

"Do we have the capacity to handle an extremely high turnout? That's the question that is weighing on the minds of poll workers and election officials."

To avoid the rush, many chose to vote early, but the experience didn't go as smoothly as expected for some.

Adreana Langston and her boyfriend voted early Friday in Norwalk. She wrote the Press-Telegram about her experience.

"We got in line at 9:07 a.m. We filled out our forms requesting absentee ballots at 10 a.m. We did not receive ballots until 2:15 p.m. The situation we experienced was disheartening and exasperating.

"I anticipated a wait of 2 1/2 hours. What I had not anticipated was a five-hour wait. We arrived upbeat and patient. We left light-headed from hunger, fatigued with irritation, disheartened and dehydrated.

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Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause in Washington, D.C., noted that in the past decade the country has seen many reports of election-day problems, including long lines, untrained poll workers and machine failures.

"We still see deceptive practices and suppression efforts going on," Boyle added.

Nationwide, more than 2,800 reports of voter problems had been made as of Friday afternoon to the Election Protection Web site, or by calling 866-687-8683 (866-OUR-VOTE).

California received nearly 1,800 reports and the county had nearly 800 reports ranging from registration and absentee voting problems to voter intimidation.

Alexander, with the voter foundation, cautioned the public to be alert this election season.

"Voters have to beware of the dirty tricks," Alexander said. "In California, we're not seeing, at least in the presidential election, the severity of dirty tricks occurring in other states, but they are popping up in some of the other campaigns and propositions at the state and local levels." (full story)

Flood of absentees may delay election night results

By Ed Fletcher and Robert Lewis, Sacramento Bee, Oct. 29, 2008

Excerpt:

An election that's already considered historic may pass yet another milestone: the first time more Californians cast votes for president by mail than at polling places.

The trend toward voting by mail suits Californians' busy lifestyles, allowing them to work through long, complicated ballots on their own time. But absentee voting could result in delayed results, particularly in tight races, elections experts say.

Californians may know Tuesday whether they helped elect the nation's first African American president or first female vice president. But as county election workers hustle to rip open and verify absentee ballots turned in at the last minute, the outcome of hot-button statewide propositions dealing with abortion and gay marriage, as well as billions of dollars in bonds for hospitals, green energy and schools, could be delayed.

"People want resolution. They don't want to hear that there are a million votes still to be counted," said Mark Baldassare, president and chief executive officer of the Public Policy Institute of California.

The deadline for counties to report pre-election registration is Friday, but preliminary counts already exceed 17 million – higher than the state's previous best of 16.6 million, Nicole Winger, spokeswoman for the secretary of state, said Tuesday.

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Jarbo said absentee ballots that arrive before Saturday will be processed by Election Day. Their results will be posted after 8 p.m. on Tuesday, making them the first results posted. Once Election Day arrives, staff will turn their attention to precinct votes; remaining absentee ballots will have to wait.

"The more we have in now, the more we can have processed in election night results," Jarbo said.

Opinions differ on the statewide impact of increased mail-in voting. Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute said it is leading to higher participation.

"You are giving busy people who want to be part of the election process – with less time and effort on their part – a chance to be part of the process," he said.

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said the state should monitor how many mail ballots aren't counted because of voter error, because the registrar's office never receives them or because they arrive after the 8 p.m. Election Day deadline.

Elections officials also have to be vigilant that voters don't vote by mail, then cast a second provisional ballot, she said. "By giving this convenience to voters we've created more work for elections officials," Alexander said. (full story)

Popularity of mail-in voting surges in California, elsewhere

By Jennifer Oldham , Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2008

Excerpt:

Opting for the convenience of their kitchen table over a neighbor's garage, nearly half of Californians are expected to cast their votes by mail rather than at a polling site on Nov. 4, marking a milestone shift in the practice of democracy, elections officials said.

At least 40% of the state's registered voters already have decided they want to vote by mail, according to data compiled Friday by the California Assn. of Clerks and Elected Officials. The percentage is expected to grow as Tuesday's deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot approaches.

California isn't the only state where voters are eschewing a trip to the polls. A majority of voters prefer their mailbox over the ballot box in Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, according to the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.

Twenty-eight states allow residents to vote by mail without the excuse -- sickness, disability, being out of town -- that traditional absentee ballots have required.

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The increasing popularity of voting by mail in California and elsewhere has prompted some election experts to question whether convenience should trump concerns about ballot secrecy, fraud and the complications of processing mail-in ballots. The growing debate is leading some registrars and voting-rights advocates to call for a renewed discussion about how far the state should go to promote voting by mail.

"Some would like to see California become entirely a vote-by-mail state," said Kim Alexander, president and founder of the California Voter Foundation, a nonpartisan voter-education group. "I would suggest we take a closer look at it."

Some experts said that residents who vote at home may be more susceptible to coercion by spouses, friends or co-workers to vote a certain way. They also worry that those who cast their ballots early could miss important campaign developments that might have changed their vote.

In the Feb. 5 presidential primary, for instance, some voters mailed their ballots in before John Edwards and other presidential candidates withdrew from the race.

Election watchers fear that ballots could become lost in the mail or arrive too late to be counted. To avoid this scenario, the Santa Barbara County registrar will send workers to pick up ballots at post offices the evening of Nov. 4.

Ballots can be sent by mail or delivered in person to the registrar's office, or can be dropped off at a polling place in the county where the voter lives. In all circumstances, ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Nov. 4 in order to be counted.

"After every election, in every county office, there are stacks of vote-by-mail ballots that aren't counted because they weren't received by the close of business on election day," Alexander said. "It's heartbreaking, because the voters don't know that their ballots aren't counted."(full story)

Disabled determined to make their voice heard on Nov. 4

By Cynthia Hubert , Sacramento Bee, October 19, 2008

Excerpt:

Rick Hodgkins of Citrus Heights has rarely missed an opportunity to vote, whether in a mundane municipal election or a hot presidential contest.

Not that the process ever is easy.

For Hodgkins, who is blind, getting to the polls and filling out a ballot requires careful planning, a plethora of telephone calls and a lot of waiting around. He is willing to go to the trouble, he said, because he believes so strongly in the process. But millions of others with disabilities are unable or unwilling to navigate obstacles between them and their right to cast ballots.

Despite changes designed to make voting easier for people with visual, mobility and other problems, less than half of the nation's 50 million disabled citizens 18 and over are registered to vote, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll. (That compares with 68 percent of U.S. citizens registered to vote in 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.)

Even if they are registered, many disabled people are reluctant to go to polling places that may be less than accommodating. Some arrange to vote by mail. Others simply give up.

With a major election a couple of weeks away, advocates in California and around the country are working to make sure that more disabled people weigh in.

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"It might be easier to vote by mail, but in the general elections in particular, a majority of people do want to go to the polls," said Kim Alexander, president and founder of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation. "They just like the experience."

The Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress in 2002, was designed in part to make voting more accessible to disabled voters. The changes have included the use of electronic voting machines designed to allow people with visual, hearing and other problems to have an easier time at the polls.

But the system has been far from perfect, with machines that don't work properly or allow for privacy, said Sklar and others.

"Assuming the polling place has one of these systems, is it actually accessible?" Sklar asked. "Can the screen be seen by others? Do poll workers know what to do if it is down?" (full story)

Americans put revamped voting technology to test

By Mary Milliken, Reuters, October 17, 2008

Excerpt:

In California, cradle of the computer industry, most voters will use paper and ink to cast ballots in the U.S. election on November 4.

In contrast, voters in Brazil and India press buttons in all-electronic elections that take digital voting technology to the Amazon and Himalayas.

In the United States in 2000, a ballot fiasco in Florida delayed the result of the presidential election by 35 days. But in Brazil in 2006, 130 million votes were counted in 2.5 hours.

Such are the ironies of how the world votes. But although some might see low-tech voting in the hi-tech United States, experts say Americans will find more reliable and secure voting systems in this election than in 2000 and 2004.

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Some states and counties readjusted their electronic systems and this year counties in 24 states will vote with electronic voting or lever machines. But many dumped electronic machines and went back to paper, while investing in optical scanning devices for counting ballots.

Most voters in California, for example, will ink a paper ballot and drop it in an optical scanner, giving voters the reliability afforded by a paper trail.

"This year, paper voting has eclipsed electronic voting, and I consider that to be progress," said Kim Alexander, president of voter advocacy group California Voter Foundation. (full story)

Election Protection

KQED, October 14, 2008

(Audio clip available online)

L.A. County supervisors name Dean Logan as registrar

By Troy Anderson, Los Angeles Daily News, July 8, 2008

Excerpt:

Despite protests from election activists, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint Dean Logan as Los Angeles County's registrar-recorder.

Logan, who will earn $195,000 annually, replaces former Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack, who retired in January with a salary of $185,648 a year.

"Obviously, I'm pleased to be through the process and really honored to have the full support of the board and the recommendation of the CEO," Logan said. "The focus now is on the November election. That's the high-profile project at the moment."

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said Logan was the best of the candidates the board had to choose from.

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Logan was also criticized for the "double-bubble" problem in February's presidential primary election. Due to a ballot design flaw, 50,000 ballots initially went uncounted. Ultimately, Logan's office was unable to count about 12,000 votes.

"As the largest election jurisdiction in the country, he'll have more challenges like this in the future," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation.

"Since he's been in one of the worst election controversies the state has ever seen, he's certainly got his hands wet already and should know how to cope with those challenges when they do arise."

But Tony Bell, spokesman for Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, said Logan has overseen three elections so far and proven himself to be a competent manager and problem-solver.

"He demonstrated an ability to work well with the secretary of state, community groups and others during a time when our voting equipment came under scrutiny, new guidelines were being implemented and a short timeline was given to conduct four major elections," Bell said.

"He's well-respected by his peers, including our former registrar, Conny McCormack." (full story)

Controversial Newsom To Run For Calif. Governor

Day to Day, National Public Radio, July 2, 2008

San Francisco's controversial mayor, Gavin Newsom, announced Tuesday that he is considering running for governor of California. Madeleine Brand talks to Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, about Newsom's history as a liberal leader, the scandals in his past and whether or not Californians would be receptive to his bid. (full story)

Low turnout as most vote by mail

By Lisa Vorderbrueggen - Contra Costa Times, June 8, 2008

Excerpt:

As widely predicted, voter turnout sank to a record low watermark Tuesday as a paltry fifth of the state's registered voters cast ballots.

But the vast majority of those who did vote opted for mail-in ballots rather than going to the polls.

The lopsided results are fueling talk of running mail-only elections at times of scant voter interest.

"I had polling places where 36 voters showed up," said Contra County Registrar of Voters Steve Weir, also president of the state association of election clerks. "We now know that any election following a bifurcated presidential primary, like it could be in June 2012, we ought to consider making it a vote-by-mail-only election."

In Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties, the use of mail-in ballots is expected to top 70 percent by the time election officials complete their tallies.

The high percentage of voters who cast mail ballots was entirely expected, said California Voter Foundation President Kim Alexander.

Of the state's 16 million registered voters, between 3 million and 4 million "vote in every single election and they vote in far higher numbers by mail," Alexander said. "It makes perfect sense that in a low-turnout election, we would see very high numbers of people who vote by mail."

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Conditions will swing wildly the other direction in the November general election, however, where the selection of the U.S. president and a slew of statewide initiatives will draw an anticipated record number of voters of all kinds. Election officials expect turnout could top 80 percent.

Even as everyone's attention shifts to November, people will continue to complain about voter apathy in nonpresidential elections, and for good reason.

In some races, a few thousand voters select members of the state Senate or Assembly who will represent tens of thousands of people on critical issues such as the state budget, health care or the water supply.

Alexander, founder of the Voter Foundation, says there's been little incentive to boost the numbers. Over the years, some have even suggested a minimum voter participation threshold in order to enact new laws or elect leaders.

But not everyone wants big turnouts, no matter what they may say for public consumption.

Local governments and school districts with bonds and parcel tax proposals intentionally place measures on the ballots of low-turnout, low-profile elections, where it's easier to attract only the voters who support their initiatives. New taxes require a two-thirds voter approval, a difficult number to achieve.

Candidates, meanwhile, spend millions of dollars to bring out their supporters and have no reason to care about the rest of them.

And regular voters often resent the infrequent drop-in who may make a decision based on little more than a mailer or a yard sign, Alexander said.

It may be time for an overhaul, Alexander said.

"One of the things we've been looking at is a top-to-bottom review of California's election process," Alexander said. (full story)

County vote goes off with barely a hitch

By Sue Doyle - Los Angeles Daily News, June 4, 2008

Excerpt:

Low voter turnout and a virtually glitch-free day at the polls made Tuesday's primary election one of Los Angeles County's sleepiest in years, election officials and watchdog groups said.
The election saw none of the confusion of the presidential primary four months ago, when a peculiar ballot design created confusion for hundreds of thousands of nonpartisan voters.

"It's been a real quiet day," said Eileen Shea, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder.

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California Voter Foundation President Kim Alexander said this was the quietest election, in terms of reported problems, that she has experienced in 15 years of monitoring California votes.

"Compared to February it's just night and day," she said. "In February we were flooded with calls from voters, wanting to know how to check their voter registration status. This election, we've had three." (full story)

State disables voter registration Web site

By Mike Wereschagin - Pittsburg Tribune-Review, March 20, 2008

Excerpt:

A design flaw in a state voter registration Web site left vulnerable the private information of people who used the site, a Pennsylvania State Department official said Wednesday.

Workers disabled the site Tuesday night after learning of the problem, which exposed driver's license numbers or last four digits of Social Security numbers belonging to people who had filled out a voter registration form online. The problem arose just days before the March 24 deadline to register to vote in next month's primary.

"As soon as we saw there was an issue, we took the page down," said department spokeswoman Leslie Amoros.

The Web site has been available for two years, Amoros said. State workers were trying last night to determine whose private information was viewed so they could notify those voters, and were working to fix the site's problems so they could get it online again, Amoros said.

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Most voter registration information is public. A voter's name, birthday, residence and political party can be obtained at county bureaus of elections. A driver's license number or partial Social Security number is required to register but that information is supposed to remain secret.

"It's very thoughtless and sloppy that this situation would occur," said Kim Alexander, founder and president of the Sacramento-based California Voter Foundation, which researches voting technology and privacy issues.

The state site allowed voters to fill out a registration form online, which they could then print, sign and mail to their county's elections bureau. Until the problem is fixed, Amoros said, voters can go to votespa.com, print an application, fill it in by hand and mail it. (full story)

Uncounted Votes

By Rob Schmitz and Scott Shafer - KQED's California Report Magazine, February 15, 2008

A week and a half after the presidential primary, about 800,000 votes are still being counted. We begin in Los Angeles where Los Angeles Bureau Chief Rob Schmitz reports that election officials are figuring out how to count some 50,000 ballots filled out by decline-to-state or independent voters. Then, host Scott Shafer looks at the problems non-partisan voters face participating in primary elections.

(Audio clip available online)

New trends plague polls

By Bobby Caina Calvan and Dorothy Korber - Sacramento Bee, February 7, 2008

Excerpt:

You know you have election day problems when the president of the California Voter Foundation is turned away from her Sacramento polling place because officials can't find her name on the precinct's rolls.

Kim Alexander's frustrating experience at Crocker Middle School was emblematic of the glitches plaguing the election process in Tuesday's statewide presidential primary. Precincts ran low on ballots, poll workers gave voters bum advice, and the final results won't be known for days.

A pair of trends fueled many of the problems: the growing popularity of absentee ballots, and the unprecedented number of voters registering as "decline-to-state" who then crossed over to vote for Democratic candidates.

"It's a giant wake-up call that we're not prepared as a state or at the local level to cope with 3 million decline-to-state voters who will make decisions, sometimes late in the process," said Mark Baldassare, director of research for the Public Policy Institute of California. "We also have to be ready for a lot of mail ballots dropped off at the last minute – and it seems we weren't prepared for that, either."

And the 2008 election season has just begun.

"We are in this long year with three elections, but I think we got the hardest one out of the way," said Jill LaVine, Sacramento County's registrar of voters.

In addition to November's general election, Californians will go to the polls in June for a slate of local, state and congressional races.

Elections officials are bracing for more confusion from crossover voting because, unlike in Tuesday's presidential primary, next time the state's Republican party will allow nonpartisans to request a GOP ballot. (full story)

Flood of provisional ballots means final vote tally may be weeks away

By Zachary K. Johnson - Stockton Record, February 7, 2008

Excerpt:

After counting more than 110,000 ballots, county elections workers reached a final precinct tally before 3 a.m. Wednesday, but the counting is far from finished.

Thousands of damaged, absentee and provisional ballots still remain uncounted, and it will be days if not weeks before the final tally is finished, officials said.

The number of provisional ballots cast was high because voters caught up in Super Tuesday fever who were eager to weigh in on their chosen presidential candidates flooded the polls, officials said.

Because of rules governing party primaries and election law, it is possible that many of the provisional ballots cast will not count, said interim Registrar of Voters Austin Erdman. And the law precludes poll workers from turning down requests to cast ballots, he said. "You have to let everybody vote."

Each provisional ballot still must be checked against registration records to determine if the ballot will count, he said. Unaligned voters were allowed to vote on the Democratic side, but not in the Republican primary.

- - - - - -

San Joaquin was among the California counties using paper ballots anticipating precinct counts lasting until 8 a.m. Wednesday. San Joaquin County reported finishing its precinct votes at 2:44 a.m., several hours earlier than anticipated.

This was still behind nearby Stanislaus County, which reported its final precinct total at 12:47 a.m. Both counties have roughly the same amount of registered voters. But Stanislaus County had voters feeding ballots into machines at the precincts, while ballots were collected and counted in a central location in San Joaquin County.

Other counties collecting ballots centrally for counting were among the last counties to report totals, but nearby Alameda County did not finish its tallying until nearly 6 a.m., according to the secretary of state. The state numbers list San Joaquin County's final count as occurring at 3:25 a.m.

"It's unusual to have instant results in California," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. "I think it's more important to get it right than to get it fast," she said.

"It's not fast food." (full story)

Confusion over L.A. County ballot design may affect candidates' final delegate counts

By Troy Anderson - Los Angeles Daily News, February 6, 2008

Excerpt:

About half of all 189,000 Los Angeles County nonpartisan ballots cast in the Tuesday primary were not counted because of confusion over ballot design, the county's top elections official said Wednesday.

And acting Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said potentially tens of thousands more may also be affected because several hundred thousand absentee and provisional ballots are still left to count.

The problems surfaced Tuesday as the registrar's office began receiving reports throughout the day from crossover voters at the polls confused about how to mark their ballots.

While election experts said they doubt the problems will alter the outcome of the statewide vote, it could affect the number of delegates each candidate gets - potentially determining the Democratic nominee for president.

"Los Angeles County is the largest election jurisdiction in the country so anything that goes wrong in L.A. goes wrong on a big scale," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation.

"If these under-votes get counted, it could change the delegates in some California congressional districts."

Under questioning by the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, Logan said about half of the county's 189,000 nonpartisan and decline-to-state voters who cast ballots did not fill in a party box at the top of the ballot required for their vote for a Democratic presidential candidate to count. (full story)

Professor's Model Helps Ensure Election Accuracy

By Priscilla Ankrah - The Daily Californian, February 6, 2008

Excerpt:

A UC Berkeley professor has developed a new method to better determine the accuracy of voting results, a formula which will be used in some counties today.

Philip Stark, a statistics professor, has developed an audit system to check the voting machines' accuracy in comparison to the manual count.

"There was previously no method of auditing that certified that you got the right answer," Stark said.

The method takes a random sample of precincts and tests to see whether each precinct's margin of error between the computer's count and a manual count is small enough to be considered insignificant.

"What we are basically trying to see is whether there are a large amount of samples with a small enough error," he said.

- - - - -

Stark's method came after Bowen commissioned a statewide Post-Election Audit Standards Working Group in order to develop a way to improve the accuracy of election counts.

Many said the group's work has changed the elections process to include more accurate results.

"I think the work done by our group was ground-breaking," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation.

Some recommendations made by the group, such as the auditing of 10 percent of counts in a precinct where the winning margin was five percent or less, have already been implemented in California elections.

While no future plans have been developed for his method, Stark said it is currently in the experimental phase.

"We're just testing to see if the results are feasible," Stark said. (full story)

Lots at stake today for primary voters

By Harrison Sheppard - Los Angeles Daily News, February 4, 2008

Excerpt:

With the Democratic presidential race narrowing to razor-thin margins, California voters are set to play a key role in national politics for the first time in years as they head to the polls today.

With tension mounting in the race for the White House - along with several controversial statewide ballot measures - analysts predict that voter turnout could top 60percent for the first time in a Golden State presidential primary since 1980.

"The excitement about this election is really high," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. "I think that's part of the problem. I mean, it's great, but for county election officials, it's going to be a challenge to handle all the questions."

Over the weekend, polls showed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has cut the once-comfortable lead New York Sen. Hilary Clinton held in California - as well as other Super Tuesday states - to a virtual tie.

On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain has surged to a lead, but former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has campaigned hard to close the gap.

Meanwhile, California voters also have seven ballot measures, ranging from expanding Indian gambling to altering term limits for state lawmakers.

With so much at stake, Secretary of State Debra Bowen for the first time has declined to make a prediction of voter turnout, saying there are too many variables and the highly contested races make it too difficult to gauge.

"It's changing daily," Bowen said. "And California has never had a primary in modern history where we were actually going to make a significant difference in the selection of the parties' candidates." (full story)

Gambling measures draw millions in donations

The Associated Press - San Jose Mercury News, February 1, 2008

Excerpt:

Pushed by fights over gambling and term limits, Indian tribes, race tracks and labor unions are pouring million-dollar contributions into campaigns for and against propositions on Tuesday's presidential primary ballot.

Altogether, the seven propositions have drawn more than $160 million in donations, with 95 percent of the money coming from contributors that have given at least $1 million. While the amount is large, it falls short of the spending record set two years ago.

The bulk of the contributions this year is flowing to the campaigns over four Indian gambling compacts - propositions 94 through 97.

The proposals would allow four Southern California tribes - the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation - to add 17,000 slot machines at their casinos.

The four tribes and their allies have raised $101 million, almost all of it coming from the tribes.

Their opponents, a coalition made up of two other tribes, race tracks and a union representing casino workers, have raised $29 million.

"All of the tribal gaming measures voters have ever faced have been expensive, and this is the most expensive set of measures yet," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, a non-profit organization that tracks campaign spending. (full story)

L.A. County sees no big delay in local vote

By Troy Anderson - The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, January 31, 2008

Excerpt:

As election officials across California warn this week that election-night results may be delayed because of decertification of some electronic-voting systems, Los Angeles County Acting Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said he doesn't expect any significant local delays.

Still, because a near-record number of people in the county are voting by mail - and more will cast provisional ballots Tuesday - Logan said only 75 percent to 80 percent of votes cast will likely be counted Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

The county has issued more than 700,000 vote-by-mail ballots, more than any other election except the 2004 presidential general election. "The real impact is going to be on the counties that previously used touch-screen voting equipment at the polling sites and had to switch back to paper-based ballots," Logan said.

"For Los Angeles County, we already do central counting so I think our counts may be somewhat delayed because of the large number of votes-by-mail and provisional ballots. But the decertification issue won't have the same time-delay impact on Los Angeles County because we are not using touch-screen voting at the poll sites."

- - - - - -

Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit voter education group the California Voter Foundation, said counties should be grateful Secretary of State Debra Bowen has taken steps to avoid any potential voting problems.

"We've seen plenty of those with electronic voting in California in recent years," Alexander said. "The secretary of state is doing her job, and that's to make sure our voting systems are secure."

In addition, with close to half of the expected votes to be cast by mail, between 1 million and 2 million ballots cast statewide will not be reported in election-night totals, McIntosh said.

And in close races, it will take one to two weeks to have most of these ballots included in the updated totals. (full story)

 

Kim Alexander discussed why Most California Voters Opt to Bypass Polls

NPR, January 29, 2008

(Audio clip available online)

Kim Alexander discussed Election House Parties

KQED, January 28, 2008

(Audio clip available online)

Switch to paper ballots ensures long night

By John Wildermuth - San Francisco Chronicle, January 28, 2008

Excerpt:

San Francisco probably won't see a repeat of November's vote-counting fiasco, but the Feb. 5 presidential primary could be a long night - or week - for other counties across California.

New state rules severely limiting the use of touch-screen voting machines in California have left many counties scrambling to prepare for elections using paper ballots. Napa, Santa Clara and about 20 other counties will have to move from their all-electronic systems for the first time in years.

"We're estimating that it's going to be 6 a.m. Wednesday before we get all the precinct votes counted," said Elma Rosas, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County registrar of voters. "Our goal is to have 90 percent of the votes counted by Friday afternoon."

That's not good news for politicians and pundits who will be anxiously waiting to see who wins the presidential primaries in the nation's largest state, which has 58 counties. If Santa Clara County's problems are replicated in the other counties that are being forced to use new voting systems, final vote counts could be a long time coming.

Most of the problems stem from Secretary of State Debra Bowen's decision in August to virtually bar the use of most electronic voting machines after a controversial state-sponsored review found that the systems were vulnerable to hackers and might not accurately tally votes.

While Bowen approved the use of the Hart eSlate system used in San Mateo and Orange counties, she limited other electronic terminals to one per precinct so that disabled voters could make their election choices unaided.

- - - - - -

The disputes over electronic voting aren't getting all the blame for the ever-lengthening vote count. The continuing growth of vote-by-mail balloting has meant that hundreds of thousands of mail ballots are dropped off at the polls on election day, which means it can take days for all of them to be tallied.

"Vote by mail is already delaying the vote count, and that's not necessarily a bad thing," said Kim Alexander, president and founder of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. "Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Fred Thompson and Bill Richardson are all on the California ballot and all of them have dropped out of the presidential race and more could quit by election day.

"It's smart for vote-by-mail voters to hold on to their ballots as long as possible and bring them in on election day."

One winner in the voting machine scramble is San Francisco, which dumped Election Systems & Software as its voting machine vendor after state-imposed conditions stretched out the November vote count for weeks.

Because of the limits on electronic voting machines, San Francisco was able to borrow hundreds of extra Sequoia Voting System terminals from Riverside County to serve disabled voters. Those touch-screen machines will be the only difference San Francisco voters will notice, said John Arntz, the city's election chief.

"It won't be anything like November," he said. "We'll release the absentee results by 8:30 p.m. and then report the results from polling places. We want to be done with the precinct count by midnight."

The growing interest in the presidential primary has election officials predicting a strong turnout on Feb. 5, which also could slow the final vote count.

But delays shouldn't be a concern to voters, said Alexander.

"It's more important to get it right than to get it fast; most people are willing to wait a day or even a couple days to see the results," she said. "It's the campaigns and the media who have put so much pressure on election officials to get results out quickly, which can lead to problems. (full story)

Obama takes heat for 'independent expenditure' ads

By Carla Marinucci - San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 2008

Excerpt:

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama - who has criticized Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards for benefiting from "independent expenditure" and political action committees - is taking heat because some of the same kind of organizations are now spending money, organizing and putting up TV ads on his behalf in the Bay Area.

These types of independent organizations aren't illegal as long as they do not act in a coordinated way with the campaign. But critics say Obama is being hypocritical in denouncing Edwards' connection with "527" independent expenditure groups while not demanding that ones supporting him stop.

In Obama's case, a 30-second TV spot financed by PowerPAC, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit political action committee, is running on cable stations in the Bay Area, urging change and a vote for Obama.

The buy, aimed specifically at younger and African American voters, has been seen on cable networks including the CW and BET, sources said.

Adam Alberti, a spokesman for PowerPAC, said Thursday that the efforts are not connected to the Obama campaign. He said both PowerPAC and a related organization, Vote Hope - a 527 independent expenditure group - intend to help "candidates who champion social justice and (are) building support in California by encouraging young people to support Obama."

Late Thursday, Obama spokeswoman Debbie Mesloh said she believes Obama was not aware of the ads.

- - - - - -

Rival Democratic campaigns asked Obama to disavow the latest effort.

"It's outrageous for Sen. Obama to have gone on the attack in Iowa about 527s when for months he's known full well about Vote Hope - a California 527 specifically set up to help his campaign," California Clinton spokesman Luis Vizcaino said.

There is no law stopping Obama or Edwards or any candidate from asking the outside organization to stop airing their ads or contacting voters. They can't, however, ask them to continue their work, said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonpartisisan organization that analyzes campaign financing. But, Stern said, a candidate can't say "'Don't spend your money in South Carolina, spend it in California.' And even if a politician says, 'Please, please stop,' it's done with a wink, wink," Stern said.

"If the ads are working, they don't want them to stop. But since people hate TV ads, the voters want them to say something," Stern said.

People may mock TV ads where a politician says, "My name is so-and-so, and I approved this message,' " said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, a nonpartisan voter education organization that examines transparency issues involving money and politics. But such disclaimers do provide voters some transparency. (full story)

State failing on campaign finance disclosure

By Steve Terrell, Sante Fe New Mexican, January 23, 2008

Excerpt:

If you want to find out how much money a candidate in New Mexico has received from a certain company, forget it.

If you want to know how much campaign cash a state official has raised in the past six months or so, too bad. You'll have to wait until May.

Those are among the reasons New Mexico once again has received a failing grade in a national study of finance-disclosure laws.

And while the state Legislature once again will consider fixing weak laws regarding transparency in political campaigns, it's not clear whether the lawmakers are any more inclined to pass such reforms this year than they've been in the past.

The weaknesses of the current laws are outlined in "Grading State Disclosure 2007," a report published in October. New Mexico was one of 14 states to get an overall grade of F.

"New Mexico's disclosure law ranks among the worst in the nation," Kim Alexander, founder and director of the California Voter Foundation, said Tuesday. Hers is one of the groups, along with the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and the Center for Governmental Studies, that participated in the study.

"Unlike 43 other states, New Mexico's law does not require disclosure of independent expenditures," Alexander said, referring to outside groups that buy advertisements and do mailings on behalf of candidates but aren't formally associated with the candidate's campaign.

The study also criticized the state for failing to require contributors to list their employers and for having weak requirements on disclosing loans. Alexander also noted that in nonelection years, New Mexico requires candidates to file only one report, even though fundraising activity goes on all year. "The majority of states require at least two disclosure reports be filed in nonelection years," she said. "New Mexico could improve its disclosure law by requiring more frequent reporting in nonelection years." (full story)

Governor puts weight behind casino deals

By James P. Sweeney - The San Diego Union-Tribune, January 18, 2008

Excerpt:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the self-proclaimed “people's governor” and advocate of direct democracy, appears to have ditched his populist roots in the fight to save four big Indian gaming deals he negotiated.

The governor personally urged U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne early last month to push the agreements through the final step of the federal approval process, even though they still face a statewide vote on Feb. 5.

He also supported a tribal lawsuit last fall aimed at keeping the referendum measures on the compacts off the ballot.

The multibillion-dollar deals for Sycuan of El Cajon, Pechanga of Temecula and two other tribes were automatically approved by the Interior Department when they mysteriously turned up after reportedly having been lost for 80 days at the agency.

Interior officials said they still don't know what happened to the agreements during that time. Federal law gives the agency 45 days to act on gaming compacts. If they're neither approved nor rejected during that time, the deals must be “deemed” approved. Because of this rule, the four compacts were approved without any federal review.

Some at Interior wanted to delay a final step in the approval process – publishing a notice in the Federal Register – to buy time to confer with the state and assess other legal options.

That's when Schwarzenegger stepped in, asking Kempthorne during a telephone conversation to finish the process.

- - - - - -

The ballot measures have been bankrolled by two other big gaming tribes, including Pala of San Diego County, a casino workers union and the owner of two racetracks.

Regardless of who is backing the measures, Quinn said, there are “legitimate reasons why the public might want to vote on the compacts,” which authorize a major expansion with up to 17,000 more slot machines at the four reservations. In addition to Sycuan and Pechanga, the agreements authorize expansions for the Morongo tribe near Banning and Agua Caliente of Palm Springs.

“There is a growing backlash against casinos,” Quinn said. “They are the cause of traffic problems, environmental problems . . . so it's a decent public issue.”

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to voter education, said she found the situation disconcerting.

“It's hard for voters to wrap their heads around referendums anyway,” she said. “Then, when you throw into the mix this possibility that, regardless of what voters do, the final outcome may be determined by agreements with the federal government, it's frustrating.” (full story)

 

 

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