Posted on January 25th, 2008 — in Ballot Measures :: Elections and Voting :: Polls and Surveys
A new Field Poll shows Californians evenly divided on Proposition 93, the term limits initiative, and Propositions 94 through 97, the initiatives that would renew and expand the gaming compacts that four Indian tribes have with the state.
A month ago, 50% favored Proposition 93 and 32% opposed it. The latest poll shows an exact even split — 39% favoring, 39% opposing, 22% undecided. The numbers on the Indian gaming measures have not changed all that much. A month ago, the split was 39-33% supporting the measures; now the split is 42-37%, with 21% undecided.
As the Field Poll says, “With voter preferences so closely divided, the outcomes of each are very much in doubt.”
The poll breaks down the differences in support and opposition among various demographic, geographic, age, and other subgroups and is well worth taking a look at. Also, we have detailed information resources on the all of the February ballot measures.
Update (1/30/08): A Los Angeles Times/CNN/Politico poll shows very similar narrowness of difference in voter attitudes toward Proposition 93, with 50% supporting it and 46% opposing.
Posted on January 22nd, 2008 — in Ballot Measures :: Campaign Finance :: Elections and Voting :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure
As of January 18, money spent on the four Indian casino compact initiatives (Propositions 94-97) has shot over the $100 million mark, making the gambling initative battle the costliest in state history, according to an article from the Copley News Service. (The total is not all that surprising when you consider the flood of TV ads in support of and in opposition to the measures that have hit state airwaves in the past month.)
The four tribes advocating the ballot measures have collectively spent an estimated $82.7 million. The opposition to the measures, which comes largely from two other casino-operating tribes (the Pala Band of Mission Indians and the United Auburn Indian Community), a casino workers union, and the owners of the Hollywood Park and Bay Meadows race tracks, have spent an estimated $25.9 million.
See the IGS Library’s informative web resources covering the gaming initiatives here.
Posted on August 6th, 2007 — in Elections and Voting :: Politics
The Secretary of State has withdrawn approval of most major electronic voting systems in the state after reviewing the results of the “top-to-bottom” review of those systems. The Secretary of State had until Friday to certify or decertify the voting systems in time for the February primary.
The decision will effectively bar at least 21 of California’s 58 counties from using already-purchased voting systems manufactured by Diebold and Sequoia in the February primary. They will instead have to switch to an “optical scan” balloting method (which uses electronic equipment to read paper ballots). Orange County will be allowed to continue using equipment manufactured by Hart InterCivic if it meets certain security benchmarks. The other counties will have to ensure that their voting systems meet a list of security standards before they are permitted to use them in another election, including implementing a “100% manual count” of all votes cast on the equipment and allowing the use of only one affected voting machine per polling place.
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Posted on July 31st, 2007 — in Elections and Voting :: Politics
A recent set of reports commissioned by the Secretary of State and conducted by the University of California found that three of the major electronic voting systems used in California — Diebold, Hart InterCivic, and Sequoia — have substantial security and accessibility flaws.
The Secretary of State’s office has posted an overview of the so-called “top-to-bottom review” on its website, along with separate reports on reviews of each of the three systems and a fourth report of the accessibility and usability of all three systems. Many of the security flaws, according to the UC reviewers, revolve around the inconsistency in security between the electronic voting systems and the operating systems that they run on.
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