Despite delay, voter
registration urged
By Kelly Feser Eells

While the courts sort out Monday's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling delaying the Oct. 7 California recall election, California residents 18 and older are warned that they won't be able to regale the grandkids with stories about the day they helped "make a little history" if they haven't registered to vote by Sept. 22.

State law requires that all eligible voters register no later than 15 days prior to each election day, making Sept. 22 the deadline for participating in California's first-ever gubernatorial recall election, to be held Oct. 7, should the recall go forward.

And if you are 18 or older (or will be 18 by Oct. 7); are a United States citizen; are not in prison or on parole for the conviction of a felony; and are not, as declared by a court of law, mentally incompetent, then you are indeed eligible to vote.

While every election is an "important" election - and no more so than in America, the democratic system's standard bearer and the only nation ever founded on the premise that democracy is a right, not a privilege - California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley underscores the importance of the Statewide Special Election of Oct. 7.

"The world is watching how we face the challenge of this election," Shelley writes in an open letter to the state's approximately 21 million eligible voters. Shelley's letter, available in both the written and online versions of the Special Election Official Voter Information Guide (as well as on his specially-created Web site, www.myvotecounts.org) concludes by saying that the Special Election of Oct. 7 "could very well be one of the most important ballots you ever cast."

With the possible exception of Florida's Katherine Harris, few sitting state secretaries have enjoyed such "name recognition." It was, in fact, the voting debacle in Florida that prompted then-State Assembly Majority Leader Shelley, campaigning at that time for his current post, and State Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg to co-author the Shelley-Hertzberg Voting Modernization Bond Act of 2002 (Proposition 41), adopted by voters in March of that same year.

Proposition 41 provides for state bonds in the amount of 200 million dollars to allow participating counties to buy modern voting equipment to replace "outdated punch card systems."

Still, neither the passage of Proposition 41 in March of that year, nor the subsequent passage of the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) seven months later, seemed, in Shelley's view, to significantly "restore voter confidence and participation."

As he wrote shortly after taking office in January of 2003, "California has its own electoral crisis, as evidenced by the shockingly low turnout of some 36 percent of our eligible citizens at the polls last November. As Secretary of State, I have no higher priorities than restoring voter confidence in the integrity of the voting process and increasing the participation of informed voters. To further these objectives, I appointed a 24-member Advisory Committee, made up of a diverse, cross-section of Californians, to assist me in drafting a plan for voting in the 21st Century. "

To that end, "My Vote Counts" - the name of both "a comprehensive road map to restoring voter confidence" and Shelley's state government-linked Web site - was born.

Expanding California's vote-by-mail program and strengthening protections on voter file privacy were two of the so-called "road map's" primary objectives during Shelley's first few months in office. Since certifying the validity of the gubernatorial recall initiative in July, however, he's become as visible a chief elections officer as the aforementioned Harris. (On Sept. 4, Shelley visited the UC Berkeley campus in order to "lend a hand in the get-out-the-vote drive" and present a "special guest lecture" in California History professor Kerwin Klein's class; see UC Berkeley News, 9/4/03.)

If you are an eligible voter, i.e., meet the above criteria, have voted in previous elections, etc., but have not yet received an official Voter Information Guide or sample ballot for the Special Election of Oct. 7, it's likely you are not registered to vote - for whatever reason. A change of residence, for example, requires re-registration. Registering is easy and may be accomplished in a number of ways:

(1) Call or visit Ventura County Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters Phil Schmit at 800 South Victoria Avenue (county government building), Ventura, 654-2664
(2) Call the Secretary of State's toll-free "Voter Hot Line" at 1-800-345-VOTE
(3) Register on-line at www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm\

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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