The other convention on March 29th

Most of us in Texas know that by state law, the 2 big political parties are holding their county/state senate district conventions. For the Democrats this will be a contentious high turnout event. The Clinton camp has made it very clear that they want to challenge every possible precinct caucus and Obama delegate that they can to reduce the strong advantage that the Obama campaign has had in grassroots organizing.

Obama's campaign is training its delegates and preparing them for the convention process. Interesting to see the striking differences between the two campaigns.

For those who are in the Dallas Diocese of the Episcopal Church there is another convention on the same day. The diocese is electing a Bishop Suffragan, who is the assistant bishop for the diocese that runs from Dallas to Tyler to Texarkana. Big area to cover, so the diocese needs a second bishop to support the declining Episcopal parishes. For those who have been tuned into the controversies in the Episcopal Church, you will recognize that the Dallas Diocese and Bishop Stanton who runs it have been in the center of the conservative movement to disrupt the Episcopal Church. Bishop Stanton was one of the founders and has been a sponsor of the American Anglican Council (AAC) which was created with money from right wing extremists such as the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).

None of the candidates appears to be a moderate; as with all "conservatives" they appear to want to return to some fantasy about how good the past was....at least what they fantasize it was. Maybe when manly men were priests and women were there to do the baking and stay out of the pulpit. Or maybe they're afraid that a real homosexual might out them, perhaps. Certainly makes you wonder if they can keep another bishop suffragan around. They're lasting 2-3 years and then gone.

Dallas Votes!

Dallas County has never really had a coordinated voter registration and education effort. Groups such as the League of Women Voters have done drives, as have the political parties, MegaVoto, etc. What we have never really done is a consistent year in year out coordinated effort to identify groups to be registered and to get organizations to consistently work with those target voters to get them involved.

I have started up a web site for the Dallas Votes! coalition. I am actively recruiting organizations to join up to work with us and the Dallas County Elections department to register 30,000 voters here in Dallas.

http://www.dallas-votes.org

District Conventions and Democratic Primary Runoffs

District conventions will be held on March 29th. Locations are yet to be determined since our normal venues aren't big enough to hold the expected number of delegates this year. In addition, we will need a large number of volunteers to help hold the conventions.

As a reminder, even though the district conventions will be over on March 29th, the primaries are not complete until the runoff election is held on April 9th. We will need poll workers for this election. It will be a low turnout election, so this will be a good chance to train new clerks for the November general election.

As always, the most current information is available at the Dallas County Democratic Party's web site.

Candidate forum--Sunset HS, 2/27/08

The debate team at Sunset HS and the North Oak Cliff Democrats are organizing a candidate forum for the following Democratic primary races:

32nd Congressional District
Dallas County Sheriff
Dallas County Tax Assessor-Collector

The forum will be held at Sunset HS on Jefferson in Oak Cliff. It's 1 block east of Hampton Rd. in Dallas. It will run from 6-9PM and be held in the auditorium.

More details to follow.

Campaign organizer training in Dallas

Good news!

Democracy for America's training team is coming to Dallas to hold a weekend long training session on political organizing. It will be held March 15-16 9AM-6pm at Townview Magnet Center. Townview is located at 8th and IH-35 just south of downtown Dallas.

Topics include:
voter identification
campaign planning
campaign finance
canvassing
phone banking
media and messaging

To register and for more information: http://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=26529

Risk Management: improving elections

I recently attending the Computer Security Institute's NETSEC information security conference in Phoenix. While attending a session on information security metrics, the topic of information security metrics as used by the Australian Electoral Commission came up. Tim Evans, the Director of Election Systems & Policy of the AEC has actually used Risk Analysis methodology to evaluate vendors as part of the procurement process. Interestingly enough, the vendor has to show that the offering meets the business needs of the AEC and will be within acceptable risk parameters.

This seems to be a novel concept in the elections world. Determine what your business needs are, evaluate your vendors against those needs (including security), and then make your purchasing decision based on that type of evaluation. Sure a lot of the elections officials in the USA say they do that, but when you look at the purchasing process it seems better connected to the quality of the lunch the vendor bought, not whether the product meets the needs of the elections department.

The trick is to implement a risk management methodology that brings together the technical people who can identify and mitigate risks with the system owners and users who identify only with the business processes. Obviously fraud control is a risk that must be managed, as is system availability,reliability and even usability. A scan of the AEC's annual reports going back several years shows that risk management is a critical part of the AEC's day to day operations.

I think every elections department should have a formal risk management program, but I bet most don't and won't unless they are forced by law.

Voting Matters--Securing our elections Apr 07

The Texas Legislature is considering several pieces of legislation that will affect both voter registration and how we conduct elections. I will give you the highlights of some of the proposals.

On the voter registration side, we have several proposals in committee both in the House in the Senate that are seeking additional proof of ID to register.

SB694, HB265, HB245 -- which propose to allow election day voter registration. States that allow election day voter registration generally show a higher turnout at elections. Bruce Sherbet has pointed out that a deputy voter registrar will be required at each polling place. Currently the county scrambles during every election to provide judges and clerks at all polling places, so the extra personnel are not readily available.

HB101, HB218, HB626, HB979, HB1726, HB2319 -- require proof of citizenship to register to vote and show proof of identification when voting. Similar laws in other southern states have been invalidated by the courts and others are under judicial review. This could have an adverse affect on our voter registration project as well as make voting more difficult for poor and elderly voters. Similar laws in other states have reduced turnout among the poor and elderly.

When it comes to voting, several bills have been filed to make voting easier and electronic voting machines more auditable.

SB946/HB942 -- propose early voting by mail for any qualified voter. Western states such as Washington, California, and Oregon have similar laws in force which have increased voter participation in elections. Current Texas law is fairly restrictive on who can vote by mail, so these proposals would expand the franchise for those who can’t or won’t vote in person. Another proposal is for small jurisdictions to hold entire elections by mail. Jurisdictions that allow anyone to vote by mail have seen participation increase over in person voting.

SB1006, SB1247, SB1647, HB65, HB123, HB384, HB527, HB1364, HB3891, HB3894 -- bills related to the use of direct recording electronic voting machines, conduct of elections, recounts. The most significant impact would be the requirement of a voter verified paper audit trail. Some of the legislation would make the paper trail the official ballot for recounts. Given problems with printers and supplies, this would inevitably cause difficulties. Bruce Sherbet has pointed out that recounting using rolls of paper takes much longer than paper ballot recounts. I suspect none of this legislation will make it out of committee this session as most legislatures are waiting to see what Congress passes first.

This legislative session has seen many election related bills filed, but with only a few weeks left in the session most will not reach the floor for a vote, much less pass in a final form. Legislators do not seem to be under pressure to pass reform legislation either by the courts or constituents. Learn more about pending legislation status: Texas Legislature Online Bill Lookup at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/BillNumber.aspx

Upcoming Candidate Forums

Oak Cliff Conservation League. Dallas Mayoral Forum: April 5th, 5:30-9:30 PM, Hitt Auditorium at Methodist Hospital. 1441 N. Beckley Ave. at W. Colorado.

Kessler Neighbors United neighborhood association: Dallas City Council District 3 candidate forum. Kessler Park United Methodist church, April 30th. Time 7PM. 1215 Turner Ave. at W. Colorado. All 8 candidates have responded, so this will be a good opportunity to listen to them all.