{"id":3535,"date":"2006-09-26T18:09:38","date_gmt":"2006-09-27T01:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=3535"},"modified":"2006-09-27T00:27:41","modified_gmt":"2006-09-27T07:27:41","slug":"ny-times-covers-emergency-paper-ballot-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=3535","title":{"rendered":"NY TIMES COVERS EMERGENCY PAPER BALLOT LEGISLATION!"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

In an article by Ian Urbina, The New York Times’<\/i> now has their story up<\/a> about the Senate’s Emergency Paper Ballot legislation as filed earlier today by Senators Boxer and Dodd.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: An updated version of the NYTimes<\/i> article, now linked above, has added Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) as a co-sponsor of the legislation as well!<\/i><\/p>\n

The BRAD BLOG broke the story earlier today<\/a> in a bit more detail, and along with the actual bill filed. We originally called on Congress in article published here<\/a> a week ago today, to introduce and pass such a bill before their Election Recess coming up at the end of this week.<\/p>\n

Urbina offers several additional points worth checking out in his Times<\/i> coverage. Including this quote from Boxer concerning her reasons for not making the paper ballot initiative mandatory<\/i>, but rather allowing it to remain optional to states and local jurisdictions [emphasis ours<\/i>]:<\/p>\n

“I think Big Brother dictating something to local jurisdictions is a big mistake, because they will balk at it,” she said. “What we’re saying here is that you run your own elections, and we are going to help you run it properly. If local officials don’t take advantage of the option to take precautions, then they’re the ones on the line.<\/b>“<\/div>\n

…As well, “Brad Friedman, a liberal blogger” is mentioned in the Times<\/i> article.<\/p>\n

So as the good Senator B, doesn’t get the idea we were dissing her bill to the NY Times<\/i> (We weren’t! Not by any means!<\/i>) in the comments attributed to us in the piece, please us allow a clarification.<\/p>\n

The statement they used from us, had originally preceded a full direct quote explaining that Election Directors from states like Florida had expressed concern that they might need a Federal mandate<\/i> in order to take advantage of the this paper ballot legislation. State election code in Florida, we’re told, does not have provisions allowing<\/i> such elections officials to make paper ballots available, even if they wanted to.<\/p>\n

In Florida’s touch-screen-only counties, for example, which comprise some 50% of Sunshine State voters, even the Provisional<\/i> Balloting is done electronically on touch-screen systems! Which means, as Leon County, FL Election Director Ion Sancho explained to us this morning, that without a Federal mandate<\/i>, it’s likely that those officials would not be able to take advantage of this legislation…even if it manages to get through the full Congress in the few days left before Congress breaks for their Election Recess.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Ah, proof, I’m not crazy! In this version of the <\/i>Times article<\/a> (how many do they release?!) there is this additional quote from yours truly:<\/i><\/p>\n

“In the case of many states, such as Florida, there is simply nothing in the state code that allows election directors to provide emergency ballot in the event of machine failure,” he said.<\/div>\n

See? Phew…<\/i><\/p>\n

Beyond that, given the short time left here, we’re delighted<\/i> to see this legislation move forward! Delighted<\/i> to see the Times’<\/i> coverage. And just delighted in general that someone<\/i> in Washington D.C. is finally recognizing the dangers to democracy that we’re facing in the upcoming mid-term election!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an article by Ian Urbina, The New York Times’ now has their story up about the Senate’s Emergency Paper Ballot legislation as filed earlier today by Senators Boxer and Dodd. UPDATE: An updated version of the NYTimes article, now linked above, has added Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) as a co-sponsor of the legislation as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,76,28,148,147],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brad-blog","category-election-2006","category-election-reform","category-new-york-times","category-lava"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}