[Davis Democrats] FW: Thousands of Voters Dumped Off California's Voting Rolls-Debra Bowen, Dem cand. SoS

[John Chendo]

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From: Debra Bowen <info at debrabowen.com>
Reply-To: <notice-reply-iweiwg6295bwnkm at ga3.org>
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 20:34:09 GMT
To: john  chendo <jac07 at dcn.org>
Subject: Thousands of Voters Dumped Off California's Voting Rolls

  
   <http://www.debrabowen.com>
  
  Dear john , 
 <http://ga3.org/ct/SdMuLhn1yXge/blog>
Discuss the latest news on the Bowen Blog!
<http://ga3.org/ct/SdMuLhn1yXge/blog>

I just learned of an alarming development in our fight for fair and
transparent elections:  The current Secretary of State, Bruce McPherson,
launched a statewide voter registration database system last year that will
disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters in California.

More than 14,000 new voter registration and re-registration applications
just from Los Angeles County were recently invalidated under this new
stringent set of regulations -- and other counties are seeing similar
results.

This is a 43% rejection rate!  In fact, virtually all of these applications
would have been accepted before Secretary McPherson rolled out his new
statewide voter registration database. Typically rejection rates are 1-2%.
This is outrageous.

And these applications were rejected for trivial matters -- a name or
driver's license number not perfectly matching what was on file in the
statewide database, for example.  Or even technical system errors that
prevented valid applications from being accepted.

We're talking about thousands of eligible voters, many of whom have been
registered for years, being thrown off the voter rolls.  Unless they correct
these trivial errors with their local registrar, these fellow citizens won't
receive sample ballots in the mail, notifying them of their polling place.
They won't receive absentee ballots.  In other words, it will be much more
difficult for them to get their legitimate vote counted.

If eligible voters are prevented from registering to vote, I view that as a
huge problem for our democracy -- I'm sorry Secretary McPherson doesn't see
it that way.  We are aggressively looking into this serious issue -- and
we'll keep you posted on what we find.

If you have any personal stories to share about this, or if you just want to
add to the discussion, please join the conversation on the Bowen Blog!
<http://ga3.org/ct/SdMuLhn1yXge/blog>

Our fight against the certification of Diebold electronic voting machines
also continues. Last Tuesday, Voter Action filed suit in San Francisco
Superior Court on behalf of voters in 18 counties, protesting Secretary of
State Bruce McPherson's decision to certify Diebold electronic voting
machines for use in the June primary elections.

I applaud Voter Action's decision to file this important lawsuit.  Now
Secretary McPherson's judgment is in the spotlight, and he'll have to
explain why he believes he has the power to ignore the law when it comes to
certifying voting equipment in California.

In the meantime, I'm continuing my series of public hearings in the Senate
on our entire elections process, including the testing and certification of
voting machines.

But regardless of how these hearings and lawsuits turn out, the bottom line
is this:  we deserve better from our Secretary of State.  What we've seen
here over the past months is an absolute failure of leadership.

After all, we've known about the "Help America Vote Act" and the June 6th
primary elections for a long time.  But the Secretary of State simply failed
to look ahead and plan adequately.  Now he's in a bind, so he's cutting
corners and making bad decisions that hurt the integrity of our elections
system.

We need a Secretary of State who can lead.  So we're going to continue to
work as hard as we can to make our elections as safe and transparent as
possible over the coming months.

I hope I can count on your support and your vote to bring change and real
leadership to the Secretary of State's office.  That's the best way we'll be
able to fix the mistakes, misjudgments, and mismanagement that we've seen
from Secretary McPherson.

Please keep tabs on all of the latest developments by checking in frequently
and joining the discussion on the Bowen Blog.
<http://ga3.org/ct/SdMuLhn1yXge/blog>

Thanks for your continued help and support!

Sincerely,



Debra Bowen
California State Senator

P.S.  I'll be on the Al Franken Show on Air America Radio this Friday, March
31st from 9:30-10:00 a.m. to discuss Diebold and other elections-related
issues.  I hope you have a chance to tune in!  Click here to find a radio
station near you or listen online.
<http://ga3.org/ct/S7MuLhn1yXgd/airamerica>

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