CVF-NEWS

News Roundup: Voter Lookup Tools, FPPC lawsuit, song lyrics & more

October 26, 2012

Hi Folks,

Heading into the final stretch of this election season, here are a few items to share in this CVF-NEWS Round-up:

CVF county directory makes it easy for voters to verify registration, ballot status, get sample ballots & find polling places;
FPPC sues donor committee, demands disclosure of $11 million mystery donation;
Senate info hearing: "Barriers to Voter Participation" - CVF testimony available; and
"Proposition Song" update lyrics.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

-- Kim Alexander, President & Founder
California Voter Foundation

Calvoter.org now providing direct access to county voter lookup tools

Updated County-by-County Election Office directory

Some of the most frequent questions CVF receives from voters are those such as:

Am I registered to vote?
Where is my vote by mail ballot?
Where is my sample ballot?
Where is my polling place?

Fortunately, finding answers to these questions is getting easier for Californians as more and more counties offer online voter lookup tools.

CVF recently expanded our Directory of County Election Offices to include direct links to county lookup tools where available. In compiling this resource, we found that among the 58 counties, currently:

48 counties, representing 99 percent of eligible California voters let voters look up their vote-by-mail ballot status online;
44 counties, representing 92 percent of eligible voters offer an online polling place lookup;
30 counties, representing 89 percent of eligible voters offer a sample ballot lookup;
28 counties, representing 84 percent of eligible voters let voters look up their registration status online.

While these tools provide broad coverage, there are still millions of Californians living in mostly smaller, rural counties who do not have online access to such tools and must contact election agencies in person or by phone during business hours to find answers to their voting questions.

View CVF's Directory of County Election Offices for comprehensive access to all California county voter lookup tools.

FPPC sues donor committee, demands disclosure of $11 million mystery donation

This week the California Fair Political Practices Commission and Attorney General filed a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court to demand that an Arizona-based group called Americans for Responsible Leadership reveal the names of its donors.

The Arizona group made an $11 million donation to the California-based Small Business Action Committee, believed to be the largest single anonymous political donation in California proposition history. The donation is being used to help fund ads to oppose Proposition 30 and support Proposition 32 on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The lawsuit was prompted by a complaint filed earlier by Common Cause. Plaintiffs and defendants will be in court next Tuesday, one week prior to Election Day, to argue their respective cases. For more details on this potentially precedent setting decision, see the Bay Area News Group story by Steve Harmon and the KXTV story by John Myers.

CVF applauds the FPPC and its chairwoman, Ann Ravel, for standing up for the right of Californians to be fully informed about who contributes to campaigns so that voters can make informed choices.

California Senate Informational Hearing: Barriers to Voter Participation

On Tuesday this week, the California Senate Elections Committee held an informational hearing in Santa Ana to take testimony from election experts and advocates on the barriers to voter participation in California. My testimony, available online here, focused on three key issues:

The opportunity for Los Angeles County to innovate the next generation of voting equipment through its Voting Systems Assessment Project;
The need for greater oversight and accountability of the VoteCal statewide voter registration database project;
And the need for including fiscal sponsors and top donors to proposition campaigns on initiative petitions and in the ballot pamphlet.
Proposition Song Lyrics
The "Proposition Song" is a hit so far, with several thousand views on YouTube already. But it has a short shelf life, and we hope CVF-NEWS subscribers will help get the word out about the video, which is

Proposition Song Lyrics

The "Proposition Song" is a hit so far, with several thousand views on YouTube already. But it has a short shelf life, and we hope CVF-NEWS subscribers will help get the word out about the video, which is available on YouTube, Facebook and Calvoter.org (and thanks to all of you who have already shared it!). High-quality audio and video files are available for news organizations that wish to rebroadcast the song. For more details see CVF's Proposition Song page in our online voter guide. Below are the lyrics which we hope will encourage you to "sing along"!

"The Proposition Song"
November 2012 Election
By Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation, www.calvoter.org

Oh we're having an election, November Six the day
Eleven propositions, come vote and have your say!
The first one is Prop 30, it's backed by Gov'nr Brown
if passed, some taxes will go up so the budget gap goes down.

31 is also 'bout the budget, its changes are not trifle
if it's passed the budget goes from a one to two year cycle.
32 would make it hard for unions to raise their donations
it also limits contributions from unions and corporations.

It's the Proposition Song!
Let's all be singing along!
Cuz the ballot is so darn long!

The next prop is about auto insurance, if passed 33
lets insurers base rates on your insurance history
If passed, 34 repeals the death penalty
Prop 35 makes more severe the crime of human trafficking

36 is also 'bout criminals and how much time they're given
revising the three strikes law so they spend less time in prison
37's about food labels, if passed codifies
that foods be clearly labeled when genetically modified.

It's the Proposition Song!
Let's all be singing along!
Cuz the ballot is so darn long!

Prop. 38 is like Prop. 30, about budget and taxing rules
If passed it raises taxes to give more funding to the schools.
Energy programs would be supported if prop 39 passes
by making out of state corporations pay some more in taxes

Last we have Prop 40 the most difficult of all
Proponents tried to have political district maps recalled
but they lost a court battle and have given up the game
A yes vote on Prop 40 would keep districts all the same.

If you want more information, just log yourself online
There's a whole lot more at calvoter-dot-org
We're open all the time!

Follow CVF on Twitter!

CVF uses Twitter to help our audience connect with important news and developments in the field of voting and elections, and also to offer live tweeting from conferences and events. An archive of tweets and links to relevant stories is available at

https://twitter.com/#!/kimalex3.

Follow @kimalex3 on Twitter to get the new, opinion and analysis from CVF's president. Follow @calvoterfdn for CVF announcements.

- - - - - - - - - - -

The California Voter Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization promoting and applying the responsible use of technology to improve the democratic process. CVF-NEWS is a free, electronic newsletter featuring news and updates about the California Voter Foundation's projects and activities.

Contact the California Voter Foundation by:

phone - (916) 441-2494
web - http://www.calvoter.org
U.S. Mail - P.O. Box 189277, Sacramento, CA 95818

Support CVF's work with a tax-deductible contribution! Learn more at http://www.calvoter.org/donate

Site Map | Privacy Policy | About Calvoter.org