Rory Cox, California Program Director at Pacific Environment (http://www.pacificenvironment.org) talks about what happened at the July 12th Feed-in Tariff Summit in San Francisco, recorded from San Francisco on July 23, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Proposal to allow online petition signing using DMV signatures gathers momentum
At around 5:00 pm, PDT, on Monday, August 2nd, at the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, as part of the 2010 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, your correspondent will deliver a “virtual presentation” entitled “Technology and Direct Democracy: Obstacles and Opportunities.” The presentation will be virtual because it will have been recorded in Los Angeles as a video file and then played to the assembled conventioneers present in the room.
Contained in that presentation is a modest proposal. Here’s the background for it:
“Eight states now allow eligible citizens to register to vote online, by accessing DMV records and applying the digitized versions of signatures on file with them to voting registration sign-up. California has adopted such a program, pending the creation of a HAVA-compliant interactive statewide voter database.”
Here’s the proposal itself:
“One new opportunity that this presents is to allow citizens to use their DMV-stored signatures to digitally sign initiative and other official petitions, just as they are now allowed to use them to register to vote.”
This proposal hasn’t even been made public yet, but it nevertheless seems to be indicative of a trend.
Washington State allows online voter registration using DMV records. This reporter called the Washington State Secretary of State’s office and spoke to Carolyn Berger, Assistant to the Director of Elections, Nick Handy; and to Katie Blinn, Assistant Director of Elections, and asked them about the possibility of extending the right to register to vote online using DMV-acquired signatures to a right to sign initiative and other official petitions in the same way.
Both of them said that that wasn’t allowed under Washington State law. Ms. Blinn provided a link to the specific administrative rule that precludes it, saying, very clearly, that: "No initiative, referendum, or recall petition signatures may be filed electronically."
But they also volunteered the information that their office had already received some inquiries from Washington State residents who were calling to find out exactly the same thing that this reporter was calling about: whether, now that they could register to vote online, could they also sign initiative petitions online?
As these two election officials told Etopia News, that’s not possible now under Washington State law. But it looks like something’s in the air.
Contained in that presentation is a modest proposal. Here’s the background for it:
“Eight states now allow eligible citizens to register to vote online, by accessing DMV records and applying the digitized versions of signatures on file with them to voting registration sign-up. California has adopted such a program, pending the creation of a HAVA-compliant interactive statewide voter database.”
Here’s the proposal itself:
“One new opportunity that this presents is to allow citizens to use their DMV-stored signatures to digitally sign initiative and other official petitions, just as they are now allowed to use them to register to vote.”
This proposal hasn’t even been made public yet, but it nevertheless seems to be indicative of a trend.
Washington State allows online voter registration using DMV records. This reporter called the Washington State Secretary of State’s office and spoke to Carolyn Berger, Assistant to the Director of Elections, Nick Handy; and to Katie Blinn, Assistant Director of Elections, and asked them about the possibility of extending the right to register to vote online using DMV-acquired signatures to a right to sign initiative and other official petitions in the same way.
Both of them said that that wasn’t allowed under Washington State law. Ms. Blinn provided a link to the specific administrative rule that precludes it, saying, very clearly, that: "No initiative, referendum, or recall petition signatures may be filed electronically."
But they also volunteered the information that their office had already received some inquiries from Washington State residents who were calling to find out exactly the same thing that this reporter was calling about: whether, now that they could register to vote online, could they also sign initiative petitions online?
As these two election officials told Etopia News, that’s not possible now under Washington State law. But it looks like something’s in the air.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Joe Mathews updates a preview of the 2010 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy
Joe Mathews, Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, talks about the 2010 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, scheduled for July 31st-August 4th in San Francisco, recorded from San Francisco, on July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Felix Kramer talks about electric cars
A remotely-recorded video interview with Felix Kramer, founder of the California Cars Initiative, talking about the transition to electric-powered vehicles, recorded from Northern California, in August, 2008
Dr. Charles Grob talks about his psilocybin research
Dr. Charles Grob at UCLA-Harbor Medical Center talks about his research with psilocybin for "existential anxiety" in seriously-ill cancer patients, recorded on July 27, 2006, in Torrance, California
Thursday, July 15, 2010
William Kelleher defends the integrity of Internet voting
William Kelleher defends Internet voting against critics who say that it cannot be made secure, recorded from La Crescenta, California, on July 15, 2010
Second Life musician Wolfie Moonshadow talks about his music
Kenny De La Rosa (Wolfie Moonshadow in Second Life) talks to Etopia News and Second Life Enquirer On-the-Air about the development of his career through performing in virtual world Second Life, recorded from Gibraltar, on July 15, 2010
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