All this and more in today's voting news below...
AL: Voters react to Birmingham election change proposal
http://www.myfoxal.com/Global/story.asp?S=12146611
BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - Birmingham voters spoke out Monday night about the prospect of putting the city council and mayor's races on the same election cycle, giving Mayor William Bell an extra two years in office before he must run for re-election
CA: Plan to educate Oakland on ranked-choice vote
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/15/BANS1CF4F8.DTL
Many city leaders and activists worry that the so-called ranked-choice voting method will confuse voters
...
A proposal from council members Ignacio De La Fuente and Rebecca Kaplan on tonight's council agenda suggests taking $225,000 from the city's limited public financing program and spending it on voter education. That's on top of the $146,000 that the Alameda County Registrar of Voters will use to educate the citizenry.
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14680272#axzz0iMCdFUqO
As County Clerks and Recorders around the state work to garner support for all-mail ballot elections, it is worth reviewing the vulnerabilities of this method of voting and how voting by mail weakens the integrity of our elections.
CO: 16 Colorado towns cancel municipal elections
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22849899/detail.html
CO: Bravo, Marilyn
http://bit.ly/bLWkVn
Elections are unfortunately becoming shrouded in unnecessary additional secrecy, complexity and obscurity. Evidence about election quality is regularly destroyed whether or not required by law, as it is for municipal elections.
CT: One Vote, Or Three Votes They Are All Important
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2973
Two recent interesting stories in the Courant that relate to past posts, both point to the value of individual votes.
FL: Group sues for Spanish ballots - Suit cites voting rights of U.S.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/west-volusia/2010/03/14/group-sues-for-spanish-ballots.html
..."I've spoken to people, (and) some of them don't vote or don't vote completely because they don't understand it and they are intimidated," Rivera said. "We want them all to understand what they are voting for."
FL: County poll workers will get tested for literacy, blindness
http://www.cbs12.com/news/county-4724704-test-workers.html
GA: Thomas A. Wilson: No voter fraud (LTE)
http://onlineathens.com/stories/031310/let_589346844.shtml
KY: Ex-judge denies steering witness testimony
Maricle testifies for second day in vote-fraud trial
http://bit.ly/9yozhZ
KY: Former Clay official jailed for dining with witness
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/03/16/1184077/former-clay-official-to-be-jailed.html
FRANKFORT -- Former Clay County school Superintendent Douglas C. Adams will spend the next several days in jail for having dinner at a Frankfort restaurant with a witness in the federal vote-fraud case against Adams and others.
NM: Federal agency pays NM's big maintenance bill for voting machines
http://bit.ly/blmBpA
A federal agency is ponying up around $600,000 this year to provide upkeep for New Mexico's more than 1,900 voting tabulators and voting machines.
NM: New law settles old issue of who owns NM's voting machines
http://bit.ly/cXPJ0e
...A bill Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law in recent days renders the fight moot, state and local officials say, by requiring the state to pay for maintenance and upkeep of the voting equipment.
NM: Battle over officials resignation escalates
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1464623.shtml?cat=517
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