More Election Changes

More Election Changes

Most of Those Darn Bloggers have been focused on the VOICE public campaign finance bill, but a fair amount of other election stuff is moving forward in the first trifecta session.

The most important reform, of course, is same-day registration which passed the Senate yesterday and is on its way to a certain Chet signature. This long-needed change is the biggest step forward in expanding the franchise since the 26th Amendment gave 18 year olds the right to vote (but not necessarily have a beer).

But still more changes are on the table. Remember I promised to talk about equipment once we got election day registration?

The Senate approved several election-law changes, including a measure that will invest $3.5 million in a statewide system of optical scanning machines and ballot-marking devices that will create a "paper trail" for balloting in all counties by the 2008 election.

But Iowa Voters still isn't pleased...

And the DI and no one else picks up on electronic campaign finance filing:

House File 413 - which would require campaigns to electronically file statements showing how their efforts were organized and how they had closed fundraising accounts from other campaigns - was referred to a Senate committee on March 26.

Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, who voted for the bill, said it has a good chance of progressing beyond its current spot in the senate.

"I think it will go through," he said. "We want to kick up technology and transparency."

But Rep. Mary Gaskill, D-Ottumwa, who served for 16 years as Wapello County auditor, said on Tuesday that the resources aren't quite available for a state board to handle the proposed electronic forms.

Well, then, let's find the bucks to move the Iowa Ethics web site beyond the unsearchable scanned image .pdf files we have now. And while we're at it let's get rid of the useless ballot courier law; the main impact has been to keep spouses from bringing each other's ballots in, and it still didn't prevent the "staffer forgot the ballots" problem that prompted it in the first place.