| Subject: news of the day 2/8/05 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 2/8/2005, 8:52 AM |
| To: election-law |
The Los Angeles Times has published my
oped on the Kevin Shelley mess and what California can do to fix
it. A snippet:
In addition, the Legislature should pass tough conflict-of- interest provisions. Shelley's predecessor, Republican Bill Jones, generally did a good job as secretary of state. But almost immediately after leaving office he went to work as a paid consultant for a manufacturer that was selling electronic voting machines to California counties.
In the short term, the governor and Legislature should appoint a competent, neutral administrator (such as an experienced county registrar of voters) to the position. Longer term, the special election that the governor is expected to call for June provides the perfect opportunity to make these changes.
Doug Chapin of Electionline.org writes:
The Sacramento Bee offers this
report.
A snippet: "A political watchdog group accused Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger of violating California campaign finance law in a
complaint filed Monday with the state's Fair Political Practices
Commission. TheRestOfUs.org, a nonprofit organization that monitors
campaign fund raising, said the governor is breaking the law by
"controlling" the activities of a business group's finance committee
that is raising money to support Schwarzenegger's agenda in a series of
ballot measures." You can find a copy of the complaint here.
The Los Angeles Times offers this
report, with the subhead: "Schwarzenegger plan is seen as
jeopardizing control of Congress."
The resolution that NASS has passed is here.
An A.P. story on the dispute is here.
This just adds to the further politicization of election administration
reform, now on state-federal lines. My work in progress deals with the
appropriate federal role in election administration reform. It is a
tough issue, but NASS's approach of picking a fight like this is the
wrong way to go.
-- Professor Rick Hasen Loyola Law School 919 Albany Street Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211 (213)736-1466 - voice (213)380-3769 - fax rick.hasen@lls.edu http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html http://electionlawblog.org