State

Articles about voting issues in individual states and territories of the United States.

It sounds like a simple enough idea: take the list of people who have been excused from jury duty because they were listed as “non-citizens” and compare those names to the voter rolls. The matches could be non-U.S. citizens registered to vote in our elections.  That was the method conservative provocateur James O’Keefe used in a video that went viral this week when he claimed to find non-U.S. citizens registered to vote in North Carolina. A local group called the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina also used it to identify 553 registered Wake County voters who could be non-citizens.  Those reports have added fuel to a contentious debate over whether North Carolina should require voters to show ID when they go to vote. Currently, poll workers are only allowed to ask a voter to state their name and address in most situations.  But there is a problem with the method that provided the foundation of those reports.  Comparing juror and voter information leads mostly to false or misleading matches. When WRAL News conducted a similar analysis earlier this year, every potentially fraudulent voter identified was a U.S. citizen. Read More »

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A candidate on the losing end of a ballot-stuffing scheme in Lincoln County is now suing a half dozen current and former county officials in federal court for $57,000, plus unspecific punitive damages. The lawsuit also sheds new light on Lincoln County’s 2010 Democratic primary, which is the subject of an ongoing federal investigation. Former county commission candidate Phoebe Harless said the officials – including all three sitting county commissioners – and a former felon deprived her of her civil rights by stacking the deck against her candidacy. Nitro attorney Harvey Peyton filed the lawsuit late last week in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. It names the commissioners, the commission’s secretary, the former sheriff, the former county clerk, a government insurance risk pool and Wandell “Rocky” Adkins. Read More »

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Tracie Hunter is a week or so away from becoming Hamilton County’s newest juvenile court judge after a recount Thursday confirmed she won the 2010 election. The final count put Hunter, a Democrat, 74 votes ahead of Republican John Williams in an election that is believed to be the longest in county history. Hunter trailed Williams by 23 votes after the election on Nov. 2, 2010, but a court order to count about 300 contested provisional ballots gave her the victory. “It has been a long struggle,” said Hunter’s lawyer, Jennifer Branch. “But it was worth the effort because we Americans believe every vote should count.” Read More »

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Douglas County Election Commissioner Dave Phipps still has a lot of work to do to satisfy north Omaha leaders. He plans to solicit feedback about voting in the primary and draw new precinct maps before the November general election. Phipps said that he heard a normal amount of voter complaints compared with past elections and that people often are confused when polling places change. Black leaders in north Omaha had a different reaction. “This was a disaster,” City Councilman Ben Gray said of Tuesday’s primary election. Gray and others on Thursday called for Phipps’ countywide consolidation of polling places to be rolled back in northeast Omaha. They said some voters decided not to vote because of the confusion about polling places.  Read More »

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From now until June 29, disabled voters in California will have the opportunity, by filling out a first-of-its-kind online survey, to weigh in on whether and how well county elections officials are providing for them at the polls. Results from the survey, which was created by the Secretary of State’s office, are supposed to help determine whether elections staff need more training and whether there is a need for modified services or enhanced outreach programs for voters with disabilities. Read More »

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A woman suspected of voter registration fraud in Sacramento County has been the subject of complaints in other campaigns as well. The registrar of voters in El Dorado County sent a warning to Monica Harris last year after problems with registrations collected at Folsom Lake College. During a signature drive in Sacramento last year – which was ultimately thrown out because of an unusually high number of rejected signatures – members of the Sacramento Central Labor Council also lodged complaints against Harris. Sacramento County Registrar of Voters Jill LaVine recently announced that she had turned over thousands of suspect registration cards turned in by Harris’ company to the California secretary of state’s office. In some cases, LaVine has received complaints from people who unknowingly had their party registration switched to Republican. Read More »

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Whether or not the state’s voter ID bill will be in place for the November general election is still a mystery. That’s because the U.S. Department of Justice — which is being sued by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office after it declined to approve the measure — is accusing the state of stalling the delivery of key data the federal government says is necessary for the trial. Late last month, DOJ asked the district court in Washington D.C. that will hear the care to postpone the trial, which is scheduled to commence July 9. The feds have argued that Abbott’s office is reluctant to turn over information because it knows it will hurt its case. Abbott has argued that the request is nothing more than political theater.  Read More »

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In an attempt to clear the voter rolls of noncitizens, a move that had set off criticism and a threatened lawsuit, Florida election officials decided on Thursday to use information from a federal database to check a list of 182,000 voters who they suspect are not citizens, officials said. Since last year, the Florida Division of Elections had sought access to the immigration database, which is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, but the department said there were legal and technical difficulties in sharing the information. On Thursday, the elections division asked the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which oversees driver’s licenses and originally compiled the list of 182,000 names, to use its access to the federal database to update its records and cross-check the names. … The state’s attempt to scrub registration rolls of illegal voters had come under fire because of the timing — less than seven months before a presidential election — and because the state itself could not guarantee the accuracy of its rolls. Read More »

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Florida’s local election supervisors on Wednesday sounded skeptical, and even distrustful, of a push by the state to remove thousands of potential non-U.S. citizens from the voting rolls just months before the critical 2012 elections. The supervisors, meeting at their annual summer conference, peppered state election officials with questions about the list of more than 2,600 people who have been identified as being in Florida legally but ineligible to vote. That list was sent to supervisors recently, but state officials have also said there may be as many as 182,000 registered voters who may not be citizens. State election officials want the state’s 67 county election offices to reach out to those on the list, determine their citizenship status and remove them from the rolls if they are not U.S. citizens. But election supervisors – including Democrats and Republicans – asked a range of questions about the level of proof that state election officials had regarding the citizenship status of voters which was culled by comparing voter registration lists to a state driver’s license database. They said they wanted more information before they purge someone from the voting rolls. Read More »

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Of the 50 states, Kansas now stands as the only one that has yet to draw new congressional boundaries. And it’s one of a handful of states that have yet to draw new state Senate and House districts, threatening to further delay candidate filing deadlines for the 2012 elections — and possibly even the Aug. 7 primary. Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Wednesday said lawmakers’ slow pace in redistricting is creating a “constitutional crisis,” and he asked a federal judge to intervene because lawmakers can’t get the job done. “I don’t want to go to court,” Kobach said at a news conference. “I don’t want to play any role in drawing these district lines. I am simply saying, ‘Please do your job. Take this out of my hands.’ ” Read More »

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Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Thursday signed a bill requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, but it’s unclear whether it will become law. Because of Mississippi’s history of racial discrimination, the state is required to get federal approval for any change in election laws or procedures. The U.S. Justice Department in recent months has rejected voter ID laws from Texas and South Carolina. The state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is asking the department to reject Mississippi’s proposed law, saying it could disproportionately create hardships for poor, elderly or minority voters who might be less likely to have a photo ID. Read More »

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Since when did Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann become the state’s chief legal officer? Last time I checked, Atty. Gen. Jim Hood was, under the 1890 state constitution, judicially established as the state’s chief legal officer. Totally ignoring that fact, the politically-ambitious Delbert is telling the media he’s the state’s champion to confront the monstrous U.S. Department of Justice and keep it from blocking the state from imposing a new law requiring Mississippians to show an approved ID in order to vote. “He (Hosemann) wants to be driving the train on the voter ID issue,” says NAACP attorney Carroll Rhodes, “while driving it off the tracks.” Rhodes on behalf of the NAACP will oppose whichever legal move the state makes to put its new voting limitation into effect. Read More »

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The South Carolina Election Commission told the state Republican Party on Thursday that it effectively can’t put a challenger to Gov. Nikki Haley’s chief legislative opponent back on the June primary ballot. The commission said in an email Thursday the state GOP can’t recertify state Senate candidate Katrina Shealy, two weeks after decertifying her and other contenders. It noted the state Supreme Court set a noon May 4 deadline for the GOP and Democratic parties to submit their lists of candidates who properly filed financial forms, and that ruling must be heeded. Shealy was among some 200 candidates for offices statewide decertified for not filing correctly. ”To accept candidates after that would be in violation of that order,” election commission spokesman Chris Whitmire told The Associated Press. “The June primary ballots are set. Ballots have been printed. Voting machines have been prepared, and voters are voting.” Read More »

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The South Carolina Senate approved a bill Wednesday that could head off the election chaos that is currently swirling throughout South Carolina. Earlier this month, a state Supreme Court ruling resulted in almost 200 candidates being tossed off June’s primary ballots after the court determined the political hopefuls did not properly file financial forms when filing to run for office. The Senate measure approved unanimously Wednesday would remove the Democratic and Republican parties from the filing process and synchronize the deadlines for incumbents and challengers to turn in financial paperwork. It does not apply retroactively, so it will not help candidates taken off ballots by the Supreme Court’s ruling. Read More »

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Defendants in the V.I. Superior Case filed on behalf of six of the seven members of the St. Croix Board of Elections say they are ready to defend themselves against charges of defamation of character and to deny they created a scandal. The members of the Board of Elections – Rupert Ross Jr., Lisa Harris Moorhead, Dodson James, Anita Davila, Carmen Golden and Raymond Williams – filed suit in V.I. Superior Court against members of the V.I. Action Group, fellow Board of Elections member Adelbert Bryan and others who the board members say are trying to ruin their reputations. Read More »

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A bill signed by the Arizona governor that would consolidate elections could impact city and county elections in Mohave County. Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law House bill HB-2826 that would consolidate elections effective in 2014. The goal of the bill was to increase voter turnout and to reduce the cost of an election. Bullhead City will hold elections for four council members with the primary in March 2013 and the runoff election in May 2013. The new council members will serve 31⁄2-year terms with the next primary and general elections for those seats to be held in August and November 2016. After the 2013 election, Bullhead City as well as Kingman and Lake Havasu City will hold elections in the fall along with state and national elections, Bullhead City Clerk Sue Stein said. Read More »

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The Federal Election Commission ruled Tuesday that U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose campaign lost millions to embezzlement by treasurer Kinde Durkee, can try to go back and collect new contributions from donors whose checks were never cashed. But the FEC ruled that Feinstein, D-Calif., can’t take new contributions from donors whose money Durkee pocketed. Overall, Feinstein campaign consultant Bill Carrick said Wednesday, that leaves the senator with almost no recourse. First California Bank hasn’t released records from the Durkee-managed accounts, he said, so the campaign has no “capacity to figure out right now what money was deposited and what money wasn’t deposited.” Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood; Loretta Sanchez, D-Anaheim, and Susan Davis, D-San Diego — also Durkee clients — are in the same boat, Carrick said. Read More »

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A growing coalition is asking Gov. John Hickenlooper to veto a bill that creates rules for public inspection of voted ballots, saying it is “an unprecedented step” to block the public’s right to ensure fair elections that was “ramrodded” through the legislature in its final days. Among those who have contacted Hickenlooper or plan to do so are members of the Colorado Lawyers Committee Election Task Force, the chairman of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, Colorado Common Cause, Colorado Ethics Watch and two election-integrity groups. ”The reality of this legislation is that at the most critical time, when the public has an interest in clerks’ management of elections, it creates an unprecedented exemption from (the Colorado Open Records Act),” said John Zakhem, a prominent elections attorney. Read More »

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81,000 fewer new voters. That’s what one researcher says is the difference from four years ago, before new, restrictive voter registration laws went into effect in Florida.   It’s just what opponents of the laws feared would happen. When Governor Rick Scott signed the law that requires volunteers registering voters in Florida to register with the state last year, the reaction was swift and angry. It was called voter suppression and “Jim Crowesque.” Even the non-partisan League of Women Voters refused to go by the new rules that gave them only 48 hours to submit registration forms to the state. ”The law is vague and cumbersome and it would put our volunteers at personal risk of fines, so we decided instead to challenge it in court,” said Mickey Castor of the League of Women Voters. Read More »

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In February, county election supervisors got some news from the state motor vehicle agency: A database audit in April 2011 had identified more than 20,000 potential non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls. But the Florida Department of State, which knew of the audit, didn’t begin forwarding a portion of those names to county election supervisors until recently — just six months from the presidential election in November. That yearlong delay has frustrated many election supervisors, who worry database scrubbing could be tainted by accusations of politics this close to an election. Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted in the review, an analysis by the Miami Herald found. Read More »

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Republicans often rail against “unelected judges” who issue decisions they don’t like. That sneering phrase, often used in complement with “judicial activism,” is meant to conjure the image of elitist liberals eager to meddle with legislation. The putdown also implies that judges lack legitimacy if they ascend to the bench without voter input. By that logic, judicial elections are preferable to merit selection—which is exactly backwards. Elections are the worst way to select judges. The process leaves judges beholden to party bosses, wealthy donors, and the whims of the very, very few people who actually bother to vote. Consider the state of Supreme Court elections in Michigan. On Monday, Justice Marilyn Kelly of the Michigan Supreme Court and Judge James L. Ryan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit wrote in an article for the Detroit Free Press that “since the turn of the century, Michigan has gained a reputation for Supreme Court election campaigns that are among the most expensive, least transparent and most partisan in the country. Our campaign ads have been among the most offensive.” Read More »

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Voters in Hamburg Central School will soon know their school budget vote results now that the problem with a malfunctioning ballot machine has been solved. Erie County Board of Elections Michael Agostino told 2 On Your Side a malfunctioning USB stick drive could not read the final results Tuesday night. The machine was sealed and taken away. Agostino said voting officials took all the paper ballots inserted into the machine Wednesday morning, and re-inserted them into a different machine and used a new stick drive to tally up the results. He went on to say sometimes technology will work well one minute and fail the next. Read More »

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Ohio’s Republican Governor John Kasich signed a bill on Tuesday reversing a contentious voting law that Democrats have called a blatant attempt at voter repression, in a move aimed at pre-empting a threatened repeal referendum. The bill rolled back a law passed last year barring counties from mailing unsolicited absentee ballots to voters and removing a requirement that poll workers assist voters they knew were voting in the wrong location. But the measure stopped short of reversing a related measure that eliminated in-person voting on the three days immediately preceding an election, as Democrats want. Read More »

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Ohio’s march toward what’s expected to be a nationally watched 2012 election took an apparently unprecedented step Tuesday, one that could put election officials into court before a ballot is cast. The potential scenario emerged Tuesday when Gov. John Kasich signed a law that repeals a controversial election bill passed in 2011 by the GOP-dominated General Assembly. The 2011 bill, which created voting restrictions that Democrats and some good-government groups decried, was to go before voters in November. The gambit, apparently the first time that Ohio legislators have ever effectively killed a referendum destined for voters, sets up a possible lawsuit over a question that could impact this fall’s election: May state legislators repeal a bill that has not yet taken effect and that is up for referendum? Democrats argue the answer is no. Read More »

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Six of the seven members of the St. Croix Board of Elections filed suit in V.I. Superior Court against members of the V.I. Action Group, fellow board member Adelbert Bryan and others who the board members say are trying to ruin their reputations. In the 16-page complaint, plaintiffs Rupert Ross Jr., Lisa Harris Moorhead, Dodson James, Anita Davila, Carmen Golden and Raymond Williams charge that the defendants created a scandal and produced and published false, misleading and offensive material about them to recall them as duly elected members of the V.I. Board of Elections. Read More »

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The clock is ticking for Governor Bob McDonnell to make a decision on a controversial voter ID bill.  He has until Friday to sign House Bill 9, which would change how voters without proper ID cast their ballots.  Proponents of the bill say it would reduce fraud, but critics call it a way to keep elderly and young voters home on Election Day. “I’m looking now at whether or not I should sign it,” Governor McDonnell said.  “I want to make sure we have fair and honest elections. I don’t want to have anybody unduly burdened with the bill.”        However, Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta says it’s electoral boards like hers that will see a burden.  Read More »

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Taking advantage of recent announcements from the governor that he will expedite restoration applications to enable former felons to vote in the November elections, the ACLU of Virginia has launched a program to encourage and assist individuals with the restoration of their voting rights. The program begins with advertisements in today’s Voice newspaper in the Richmond area, and tomorrow’s Voice newspaper in Hampton Roads. Tomorrow’s Richmond Free Press will run a large format version of the ad. The ads say the governor has indicated he will be able to process all fully completed applications from non-violent felons submitted by June 29 in time for the registration deadline of October 15. Also, because the governor’s office has a general goal of processing such applications within 60 days, the ACLU is encouraging those who miss the June 29 deadline to try to submit applications by mid-August. Read More »

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The hand recount of votes cast in 15 of the precincts that voted in the April 3 Anchorage Municipal Election is heading into the home stretch. The initial recount is done, but workers are recounting seven races and one full precinct again. The Anchorage Municipal Clerk’s Office has completed their initial hand recount of ballots cast in the messy Municipal Election. Barbara Gruenstein is the Municipal Clerk. She’s supervising the hand recount. She says her team finished the count Friday, but found that 7 of the 15 precincts they looked at did not match up, so they are recounting those races again. Read More »

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In the first broad test of California’s new “top-two” election system, many candidates in heated races for Congress and the state Legislature have been campaigning earlier, spending more money and downplaying their party affiliation as they try to widen their appeal. Gone are the party primaries, except in the presidential race. Now all state candidates appear on a single ballot. Only those who come in first or second on June 5 will move on to the November general election, in which no write-in or other added candidates will be allowed. The new rules, approved by California voters in 2010, further empower voters who don’t belong to a political party _ already the fastest-growing category in California, accounting for more than 21 percent of the state’s registration. Read More »

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Florida election supervisors, at their annual convention in Tampa this week, find themselves focusing once again on a familiar and troubling issue: the accuracy and reliability of the state voter registration database. It’s not a problem of their making, and that only adds to their frustration. As the elections officials convene, they are simultaneously seeking to verify the legal status of about 2,700 voters who were red-flagged by the state motor vehicle agency as non-U.S. citizens and thus ineligible to vote. Problem is, some people on that list can legally vote. One of the people on the list is Manoly Castro-Williamson, 48, of Wesley Chapel, a U.S. citizen and a registered Republican who has voted in every election in Florida since 2004. She was one of 13 potential noncitizen voters forwarded to Pasco County by state elections officials. Read More »

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Idaho

Randy Smith and Mike Wetherell used to parry political ideas when they chaired the Idaho Republican and Democratic parties in the early 1990s. Smith and Wetherell now wear judges’ robes — Smith in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and Wetherell in Idaho’s 4th District Court. Today, they’re breaking a lifetime habit together. “I do not believe that I should declare what I am,” said Smith, 62. “I’m not supposed to be partisan. So I’m not voting. I’ve never not voted. It’s going to be sad.” The 67-year-old Wether-ell said: “For the first time since I became of voting age, I will not be taking part in the primary election. I meant it when I said that in this job I would be nonpartisan.” Nobody told Wetherell and Smith that they can’t vote. They decided that their own ethics and reading of judicial canons prevent partisan affiliation. Read More »

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Citing clear evidence that the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) have violated their federally-mandated responsibilities to offer tens of thousands of public assistance clients opportunities to register to vote, a Massachusetts citizen and two community groups filed suit today for violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). Congress passed the NVRA to boost democratic participation by ensuring that all eligible citizens have ample opportunities to register to vote.  Section 7 of the law requires state agencies that provide public assistance, including those that administer federal assistance programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, TANF, and WIC, to assist their applicants and clients in registering to vote. Read More »

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An audit of state voting records released Tuesday uncovered evidence suggesting dead people and prisoners may have voted in Michigan elections during the past three years. Auditor General Thomas McTavish’s office compared the state’s registered voter files with death records and found 1,375 deceased individuals cast 1,381 ballots between 2008 and 2011. Ninety percent of the ballots were cast by absentee voters and 10 percent voted at the polls, according to audit report. In response to the audit, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s office said no voter fraud was at play, and instead attributed instances where records show incarcerated or deceased individuals voting as an error by local election clerks. Some of the individuals may have legally cast an absentee ballot and died before the election, election officials said. Read More »

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For the second time in two weeks, super PACs will play a major role in determining the outcome of a U.S. Senate primary contest. Republican Jon Bruning, Nebraska’s attorney general, was expected to win in a cakewalk for the seat, soon to be vacated by retiring Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat. Instead, two underfunded insurgent candidates — Don Stenberg and Deb Fischer — are giving him a run for his money, thanks in large part to a handful of outside groups. Bruning has the fundraising advantage, having raised more than $3.6 million for his campaign. Stenberg has raised about $750,000, while Fischer has raised less than $440,000 for the race, including $35,000 of her own money. But heading into today’s primary, conservative outside groups have spent more than $2 million on advertising, according to Federal Election Commission records, with nearly $1 million going toward ads attacking Bruning. The ads appear to have been effective — Bruning’s numbers have slipped, according to recent polls. Read More »

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Legislation scheduled to be introduced today by Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo would make it easier to recall a mayor or other elected official, currently a long and formidable process. DeAngelo’s bill would allow residents to recall a mayor or any other elected official earlier in the official’s term than is currently allowed. More important, the bill would lower the number of petition signatures needed to force a special election that could boot an official from office. The assemblyman called current recall procedures “daunting” and said residents shouldn’t face nearly impossible hurdles to remove a politician they feel isn’t worthy of the job. Read More »

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