NewMexicoMatters.com

Database glitch may hurt early vote in Texas

Star-Telegram.com | 04/28/2007 | Database glitch may hurt early vote:
County election officials statewide are braced for trouble next week because a new state database has not provided updated voter rolls for many polling places, and early voting begins Monday for the May 12 election.

Counties statewide have been struggling with the Texas Elections Administration Management system, or TEAM, since the state required them to switch to the system this year.

Smaller counties are particularly affected because the Web-based TEAM system has not provided some of the updated voter registration lists that counties normally distribute to every voting location, according to Scott Haywood, spokesman for Secretary of State Roger Williams' office.

Indiana experimenting with polling centers

Palladium-Item - www.pal-item.com - Richmond, Ind.:
Starting Monday, the polls open early only in Richmond as part of an exclusive pilot program that uses vote centers to collect ballots, a dramatic departure from the traditional precinct system used in years passed.

"I think this will speed up the traffic more," said Josephine Burdette, who will be a greeter at one of the voter centers next week.

That's because vote centers offer more choices to voters, including multiple voting days and more locations to vote. The four voting centers in Wayne County replace 31 precinct polling places in past elections. But where voters had to cast past ballots at their neighborhood precinct location -- a confusing proposition in itself for many -- they may now go to any of the four centers to vote.

Technorati Tags: Elections, Politics

USNews.com: California's Earlier Primary May Rewrite the Rules of the 2008 Race

USNews.com:  Californias Earlier Primary May Rewrite the Rules of the 2008 Race, but Candidates Are Struggling to Figure Out How :
SACRAMENTO, CALIF.-The way Fabian Núñez sees it, moving California's presidential primary to February 5 next year from its customary June has already paid off. Testifying on global warming before the U.S. Senate in March, Núñez, the speaker of the State Assembly, was invited to an impromptu half-hour private meeting with Illinois senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama. On another trip to D.C., Núñez was dining with other California lawmakers when Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton stopped by the restaurant to say hello. They stayed for two hours. Former Sen. John Edwards, another Democratic presidential contender, has telephoned. And when Núñez ended the wooing last week by endorsing Clinton, he got an impressive campaign title: national cochair. "I wasn't looking to play a national role," he says in his office, where the drapes are emerald to match the green in the state flag. "But I'm not going to shy away from it, either."

Technorati Tags: 2008elections, Battleground, BillRichardson, DNC, Elections

ABQjournal: Gift to PAC Aids Land Boss

ABQjournal: Gift to PAC Aids Land Boss:
LAS CRUCES— A political action committee received thousands of dollars in contributions from a developer who was dealing with the state Land Office last fall, then reported giving similar amounts on the same days to the re-election campaign of Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons.
According to records on file with the secretary of state:

• On Aug. 7, developer Philip Philippou of Las Cruces gave $10,000 to the Santa Fe-based Blue & Red PAC. The same day, the PAC gave $7,500 to the Committee to Re-Elect Pat Lyons.

• On Sept. 8, Philippou gave the Blue & Red PAC a contribution of $10,500. The same day, Blue & Red gave $8,000 to Lyons' re-election campaign and spent $2,142.50 on campaign T-shirts for Lyons.

Lyons signed a potentially lucrative no-bid contract with Philippou on Dec. 26 to master-plan a 4,200-acre tract of state trust land and seek its annexation by Las Cruces.

Political Briefings At Agencies Disclosed - washingtonpost.com

Political Briefings At Agencies Disclosed - washingtonpost.com:
White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday.

The previously undisclosed briefings were part of what now appears to be a regular effort in which the White House sent senior political officials to brief top appointees in government agencies on which seats Republican candidates might win or lose, and how the election outcomes could affect the success of administration policies, the officials said.

House Passes Iraq Pullout Timetable - washingtonpost.com

House Passes Iraq Pullout Timetable - washingtonpost.com:
The House last night brushed aside weeks of angry White House rhetoric and veto threats to narrowly approve a $124 billion war spending bill that requires troop withdrawal from Iraq to begin by Oct. 1, with a goal of ending U.S. combat operations there by next March.

N.H. Is Set To Approve Same-Sex Civil Unions - washingtonpost.com

N.H. Is Set To Approve Same-Sex Civil Unions - washingtonpost.com:
HART'S LOCATION, N.H. -- The champagne is on ice at the Notchland Inn on Route 302. Proprietors and longtime partners Ed and Les are ready to raise their glasses to New Hampshire later today, when the state is set to pass a broad civil union bill granting gay and lesbian couples virtually all the same legal rights as married heterosexuals.

Law could limit primary candidates

Link:
Law could limit primary candidates .

Voters could end up with fewer candidates to pick from in primary elections because of a new law that limits how Democrats and Republicans can earn a place on the ballot.Democrat Jim Baca calls the change "bad policy" and says it could hurt candidates like him who haven't fared well at state nominating conventions. "This is just ... something that makes it less likely for anybody that doesn't cozy up to the party bosses to get elected," Baca said Thursday.The new law, which takes effect July 1, revamps the procedure for preprimary nominating conventions, which have been held by the major political parties since 1994 to determine the ballot order for statewide and congressional candidates.

The New York Observer Politicker: Bill Richardson on Rock-Star Status, Rudy, Foreign Intervention

The New York Observer Politicker: Bill Richardson on Rock-Star Status, Rudy, Foreign Intervention:
Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson doesn't want to peak too soon.

"Well, I can't compete Senator Clinton and Obama. I don't think anyone can," he said during a round-table with reporters after he spoke at the National Action Network this afternoon in midtown. "But I don't believe money or rock-star status is going to win this election."

He added, "I don't want to surface to the top right now. This race is 10 months away. All of you are obsessed with these numbers. On fund-raising, I did respectably well. Any other year, without these rock-star fund-raising figures, my figure would have been considered impressive. Now, it's just respectable."

Ruling Draws Lawmakers Toward Political Minefield - washingtonpost.com:

Ruling Draws Lawmakers  Toward Political Minefield - washingtonpost.com:
The Supreme Court ruling yesterday resurrects the politically charged issue of reproductive rights just in time for the 2008 campaign season, but it may not be a fight the Democrats want.

All the 2008 Democratic presidential candidates, along with many congressional Democrats, issued statements opposing the court's 5 to 4 ruling upholding a ban on a type of abortion, and GOP candidates uniformly applauded the decision.

Technorati Tags: 2008elections