TO: CVF-NEWS FROM: Kim Alexander, CVF President DATE: January 13, 2000 RE: Initiatives, Internet Voting, and More
In this issue of CVF-NEWS:
* Initiative Watch 2000 Updated
* Coming soon: The California Online Voter Guide!
* Digital Sunlight California
* Internet Voting
* PPIC Survey -- Californians, the Internet and Politics
* CVF in the News
* CVF Announcements
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* Initiative Watch 2000
The California Voter Foundation is tracking initiatives as they move through the qualification project through our new Initiative Watch 2000 project. At this section of our web site, you will find information on all initiatives attempting to qualify for the ballot in California, including the text of each measure where available and links to initiative campaign web sites. We just updated these pages last week, and they feature many new initiatives now in circulation. Visit www.calvoter.org and follow the link to Initiative Watch 2000 to view all the latest information on California initiatives.
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* Coming soon: The California Online Voter Guide!
CVF is hard at work creating the sixth edition of our very popular California Online Voter Guide, which will soon debut on our web site. As with the last five voter guides CVF has produced, the March 2000 guide will serve as a nonpartisan clearinghouse of election information, featuring links and contact information for all California campaigns, and directing voters to helpful and reliable online resources. CVF is paying special attention this year to California propositions, and will provide brief, easy-to-read summaries of each measure and lists of the top ten contributors for an against each proposition, updated frequently throughout the election season. We plan to debut our first Top Ten Contributors list in early February. Stay tuned!
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* Digital Sunlight California
This year Californians will be able to follow the money like never before, thanks to the Online Disclosure Act, a law passed by the legislature in 1997 that will be fully implemented this year, requiring state campaigns and committees to disclose their campaign finance reports electronically. We'll have more news about these exciting developments in a few weeks, once the first round of electronically-filed reports, due on January 22, are available on the Internet.
For more information, visit CVF's newly-improved Digital Sunlight web site, which includes a new, 10-page progress report on the state of the art of digital disclosure:
www.digitalsunlight.org
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* Internet Voting
CVF Board member David Jefferson and myself have been serving on California Secretary of State Bill Jones' Internet Voting Task Force. Our group's long-awaited report is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, January 18th at a news conference at the Secretary of State's office. In addition, the Brookings Institution is holding a forum on Internet voting co-sponsored by Cisco Systems, and featuring California Governor Gray Davis as a panelist.
We will be sure to distribute the news release and findings of the California Internet Voting Task Force to CVF-NEWS subscribers as soon as possible. For more information on the Brookings Institution event, visit:
www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20000120.htm
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* PPIC Survey -- Californians, the Internet and Politics
Last month, the Public Policy Institute of California released the latest findings in its ongoing survey of Californians' attitudes toward
government. The December 1999 report includes a special focus on the Internet's role in politics. Among the survey's findings:
* One in five Californians say they have surfed the net to gather news and information about politics and elections
* Californians are evenly split on Internet voting (47 percent favor; 48 percent oppose, 5 percent are undecided)
* 43 percent of Californians say they "often" go on line
* Age and location are strong indicators of Internet use: Californians living in the San Francisco Bay Area ranked highest among frequent Internet users, at 52 percent; frequent Internet use is found among half of California's adult residents who are 18 to 54, while it is more rare among those who are 55 and older (25%).
The survey also focuses on race and income as factors in Internet use, and includes many more fascinating findings about Californians' attitudes toward government and the state's future. To view more details about the survey's findings on the Internet and politics visit:
www.ppic.org/publications/CalSurvey8/survey8.ch5.html
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* CVF in the News
We have lots of new stories featured on our "CVF in the News" page of our web site, including several about Internet voting from Forbes.com, the Christian Science Monitor, the San Francisco Examiner and New York Times' Cybertimes, which also recently published a story on CVF's Digital Sunlight Awards. All these stories can be accessed from:
www.calvoter.org/news/news.html
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* CVF Announcements
CVF welcomes back Saskia Mills! We're pleased to have Saskia, our managing director and web site editor, back on staff full-time after a three-month maternity leave. CVF also welcomes two new interns, Sheetal Jhala and Mike Strong, both UC Davis students who are helping out with CVF's primary election projects.
We are pleased to announce that CVF was recently awarded a $25,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to help fund CVF's online campaign finance disclosure programs for 2000.
You too can help! If you are not already a CVF member, you can sign up to become one online. It's fast, it's easy, it only costs $35 and you can pay online with your credit card via a secure server. To sign up, please visit:
www.calvoter.org/membership
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Happy new year, everyone!
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This page was first published on January 13, 2000 | Last updated on November 29, 2000
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