TO: CVF-NEWS FROM: Kim Alexander DATE: June 12, 2003 RE: CVF News Roundup: Davis recall, Tom Paine, the Webbies & more
Hi Folks:
In this edition of CVF-NEWS:
* Gray Davis recall gaining momentum
* Voting tech piece in TomPaine.com
* June 24th New York voting technology forum
* Congrats to the 2003 Webby Award winners!
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* Gray Davis recall gaining momentum
California newspapers have been reporting all this week that the effort to qualify a recall of California Governor Gray Davis is likely to succeed. Proponents are reported to have gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures already; they need 900,000 valid signatures to force a recall election.
If the recall qualifies for the ballot, there will either be a special statewide election or the recall could be consolidated with the next statewide election, to be held March 2, 2004. Whether a special election is triggered depends on when the signatures are submitted and how long local and state election officials take to verify them and qualify the measure.
If a recall election is held, voters who participate in it will also be asked to pick a candidate to replace the governor if he is recalled. The winner of this contest needs only a plurality of votes -- there is no primary or runoff. Another wild card in the mix is UC Regent Ward Connerly's "racial privacy" initiative -- if there is a special statewide recall election, that controversial measure will appear on the same ballot.
The procedure for recalling state and local California officials is online at http://ss.ca.gov/elections/recall.pdf. Campaign finance information on the three committees raising and spending money to recall Davis can be found at http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Global/search.asp?SEARCH=Recall+Davis.
A good place to find the latest recall news is the Rough & Tumble web site, http://www.rtumble.com. A few stories worth taking a look at: SF Chronicle -- "Electoral free for all could choose next Governor" http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/06/12/MN200164.DTL Sacramento Bee's Daniel Weintraub -- "Recall election is looking more likely by the day" http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/6826331p-7776583c.html
New York Times -- "Leader of effort to recall California governor named in dispute", http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/12/politics/12DONA.html
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* Voting tech piece in TomPaine.com
This week TomPaine.com is featuring a piece about the need for computerized voting systems to have a voter-verified paper trail. It also provides a summary of recent developments, and is online at http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8033. I hope you get a chance to check it out.
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* June 24th New York voting technology forum
Later this month I will be speaking at a forum in New York about voting technology issues and why computerized voting systems need a voter-verified paper trail.
"New Voting Machines for New York State: Promise or Peril?" is the topic of a two-hour forum to take place on Tuesday, June 24 from 10 a.m. - 12 noon. This event which is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by a coalition of New York-based civil and voting rights organizations and will be held at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, at 42 West 44th Street.
Other speakers include: Steven Carbo, Director, Democracy Program, Demos; Jon Del Giorno, former Administrative Director, NYC Board of Elections; and Jim Dickson, VP of Governmental Affairs, American Association of People with Disabilities.
Sponsors include: The Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund, (AALDEF) * The Association of the Bar of the City of New York * The Century Foundation * Citizens Union of the City of New York * Common Cause/NY * Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law * Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action * New York Lawyers for the Public Interest * The New York Public Interest Research Group, (NYPIRG) * People for the American Way/NY * Professional Staff Congress & the New York State Citizens' Coalition on HAVA Implementation.
No registration is required. For more information contact Neal Rosenstein/NYPIRG, nrosenstein@nypirg.org.
I look forward to seeing many of you there!
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* Congrats to the 2003 Webby Award winners!
Last week the 7th Annual Webby Awards were held -- for the first time the Webby ceremony went global, with the awards given out online and award parties held in various locations.
I served as chair for the Government & Law category, and am happy to announce that NASA won the Webby Award this year for the best government or law web site. NASA has been nominated many times in various categories over the years, and though it had been chosen as the "People's Voice" winner, the site never won a Webby. I was afraid NASA was going to become the Susan Lucci of the Webby Awards, so I was pleased that this outstanding government resource (http://www.nasa.gov) finally won not one but two Webby Awards this year.
Congrats also to Moveon.org (Politics), ActforChange.com (Activism), Meetup.com (Community), News.Google.com (News), and all the rest of this year's winners! To see the full list of winners and nominees, visit http://www.webbyawards.com.
That's all the news for now. Have a great week,
-- Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
kimalex@calvoter.org, http://www.calvoter.org
(916) 441-2494
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This page was first published on June 12, 2003 | Last updated on June 12, 2003
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