Chuck Kirkpatrick talks about ThePeoplesVote.com

Chuck Kirkpatrick, CEO of ThePeoplesVote.com, talks about a “Civic Engagement and Political Communication System” that allows citizens to vote on “Advisory Propositions” and have their views forwarded to their lawmakers, recorded from Palm Bay, Florida, on August 15, 2012.

Mike Smith talks about converting duckweed to energy

Mike Smith, CEO of CEG (Ceres Energy Group) Power and Gas, talks about the company and the process it uses to generate bio-gas and electricity from the duckweed plant, recorded from Cape May, New Jersey, on August 13, 2012.

Joachim Messing talks about duckweed

Joachim Messing, University Professor of Molecular Biology, Selman A. Waksman Chair in Molecular Genetics at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and the Director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, discusses the physical properties and genetic possibilities of Spirodela polyrhiza, or duckweed, recorded from Somerset, New Jersey, on August 7, 2012.

LIPA’s Michael Deering discusses its new feed-in tariff program

Michael Deering, Vice President of Environmental Affairs at the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), talks about that utility’s recently-introduced 50 MW feed-in tariff program, recorded from Uniondale, Long Island, New York, on July 26, 2012

Shane Hamlin at Washington State OSOS talks about online voter registration

Shane Hamlin, co-director of elections in the Washington State Office of the Secretary of State, talks about that state’s online voter registration (OLVR) system, the use of OLVR in other states, and a newly-created system for checking for cross-registration across multiple states, recorded from Olympia, Washington, on July 13, 2012.

California Secretary of State promises online voter registration by Labor Day

The California Secretary of State confirmed in an e-mail sent late this afternoon (July 5, 2012) to Etopia News that California citizens will soon be able to register online to vote, writing:

“The Secretary of State’s office is coordinating with the State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the counties’ election management system vendors to develop the interface that will connect counties and the DMV.  This will allow for online voter registration.  We expect *full online voter registration to be available by Labor Day.  As always, voter registration records are maintained at the county level.

“* People can already fill out the Secretary of State’s online voter registration form at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote then just print, sign and mail it. (The form is even pre-addressed to the registrant’s county elections office.) “

California counties are waiting for software from the Secretary of State to proceed with online voter registration

Election officials in several California counties today told Etopia News that they are planning to offer online voter registration to their citizens, as soon as the requisite software from the California Secretary of State’s office is available.

Their views differed on when that would be, ranging from before “mid-August” to “October.”

Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said that the anticipated online voter registration system would be an “interim fix” that would “not need the VoteCal system” in order to work.  The VoteCal system is a state-wide voter registration data base required under the federal Help America Vote Act that is not expected to be in place until 2015.

Mr. Kelley said that the software needed to implement the process was already in “the testing phase” and could be ready to go by “mid-August, or sooner.”

He said that the online voter registration would be offered through the Secretary of State’s website and that Orange County citizens could use it “as soon as the state finishes the programming.”

This view was shared by Ventura County Registrar of Voters Mark Lunn, who said that “the Secretary of State is the mothership” in the process.  “We’re on-track to comply.  We want to do it.  We’re on track to implement it.  The counties have to be plugged in.  We’re ready to go as soon as the Secretary of State is ready to implement.”

Elma Rosas, spokesperson for the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters says the system should be “ready-to-go in September or October.”  She said that Santa Clara would proceed “as soon as the infrastructure is in place.”

Melvin Briones, Assistant Registrar of Voters in Marin County, also said his department was “waiting for the Secretary of State.”

Rebecca Spencer, Assistant Registrar of Voters in Riverside County, said that “the Secretary of State is taking the lead” on the online voter registration process and that that office expects the system to “go live in September, 2012.”

Cecilia Gomez Reyes, spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, originally told Etopia News that she expected the system to be up and running by August, but then modified her view to say that she now expected it to go live in September, 2012.