SUMMARY OF FALL CONFERENCE 2008 AT THE CAPITOL IN HARTFORD: click on foggy Capitol to get to Cable/DSL version; beyond "hanging chads" of 2000...vote early and often in Chicago...LWVUS speaker and Senator Slossberg reminded us that there have been four (4) times when the President did not receive the majority of the popular vote.  One of those times was Year 2000.  In addition, Carol Mellor pointed out that although Barak Obama won by more than 7 million votes, had a total of 500,000 votes been different (divided among a few states), he might not have won...in the Electoral College.  Lesley Mara gave a complete rundown on where we stand now with new machines, methods and why CT is now leading the parade in good practices for elections.  And Luther Weeks was an excellent counter and reality check to those eager to junk the old ways!!!

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Watch the Fall Conference on your computer here:
Cable/DSL version:
http://www.lwvweston.org/LWVCT12-6-08CableVersion.wmv
Dial-up Modem version:
http://www.lwvweston.org/LWVCT12-6-08ModemVersion.wmv

Please contact the LWVCT office for more news of the availability of FALL CONFERENCE 2008 video for use as a tool in the Consensus or just for a regular meeting topic...meanwhile, get informed about the national study!
Speaking of this Conference's title...click here for actual turnout numbers!
The LWVCT's Fall Conference was “Election Day: Did My Vote Really Count on November 4th?"

Saturday, December 6, from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon, in the Old Judiciary Room at the Capitol in Hartford the place rocked with Leaguers and Registrars and folks just interested in making our system of elections more effective.  There were two topics:

-- election integrity and security with Connecticut’s new voting machines
-- the Electoral College and the National Popular Vote (NPV) movement.  

Registration overflowed expectations!  Almost every last mini-Danish was gone at the end!

The speakers were, in addition to LWVUS Study member Carol Mellor (above)...

Lesley Mara, Deputy Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut: Overview of CT’s Electoral Process and Measures to ensure the Integrity and Security of Connecticut’s Voting Systems

Luther Weeks, Executive Director, CTVotersCount: Let’s Take a Closer Look at Election Security

Hon. Gayle Slossberg, Co-Chair, CGA Government Administration and Elections Committee: Election Security from a Legislative Perspective

Program agenda:

9:00 – 9:30        Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:30 – 9:35        Opening Remarks and Introduction of Moderator
9:35 – 9:45        Introduction of Speakers by Moderator
9:45 – 10:05      Lesley Mara, Deputy Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut: Overview of CT’s Electoral Process and Measures to ensure the Integrity and Security of Connecticut’s Voting Systems
10:05 – 10:25    Luther Weeks, Executive Director, CTVotersCount: Let’s Take a Closer Look at Election Security
10:25 – 10:35    Hon. Gayle Slossberg, Co-Chair, CGA Government Administration and Elections Committee: Election Security from a Legislative Perspective
10:35 – 10:55    Carol Mellor, LWVUS National Popular Vote Study Task Force Member and LWV Hamptons, NY, President: The Electoral College and the NPV Alternative
10:55 – 11:05    Hon. Gayle Slossberg, Co-Chair, CGA Government Administration and Elections Committee: National Popular Vote Movement in CT
11:05 – 11:50    Audience Q&A
11:50 – 12:00    Closing Comments and Adjourn

Directions to State Capitol

Going East on I-84:  Take Capitol Ave. Exit 48B.  The Capitol Building is on the left.
Going West on I-84:  Take Asylum St. Exit 48.  Turn right at the light, then immediately take left fork,
Farmington Ave.  Turn left at the next light onto Broad St.
From I-91, northbound and southbound:  Take the Capitol Area Exist 29A. Follow the Whitehead
Highway, Go halfway around the rotary onto Elm St. Continue across Trinity St. into Capitol driveway.

A Ballot Buddy System
NYTIMES
By RANDALL LANE, Op-Ed Contributor
December 15, 2008

THE 2008 presidential election actually ends today, when the people whose votes truly count, the 538 electors chosen by voters to reflect their candidate preference, convene in each state to cast their ballots. The result might lack drama — 365 electoral votes for Barack Obama, 173 for John McCain — but when a high school biology teacher named William Forsee walks into Nebraska’s Capitol in Lincoln this afternoon, some history will be made.

Nebraska went for John McCain by 15 percentage points. Yet Mr. Forsee, a resident of Bellevue, just outside Omaha, will cast his electoral vote for Mr. Obama — the first time since 1892 that any state has chosen to split its slate.

Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that now apportion some of their electoral votes by Congressional district rather than give them all to the statewide winner. (Mr. Obama won all four of Maine’s electoral votes.) It explains why both Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton campaigned in Omaha during the closing weeks of this year’s campaign.

Election theorists talk nobly of moving America’s presidential election to a popular vote, but that would require a Constitutional amendment. Swing states would never pass it, because it would mean giving up their influence. Neither would small states, which have a disproportionate influence in the Electoral College. But if every state apportioned its electoral votes as Maine and Nebraska do — one for each Congressional district, plus two for the overall state winner — millions more voters would suddenly become worthy of the candidates’ attention.

What’s stopping the safe states from making themselves more politically relevant? The understandable reluctance of one party to unilaterally improve the presidential prospects of the other. A failed initiative in California earlier this year to move to district-based apportionment was denounced for what it was — an attempt by Republicans to siphon off sure Democratic electoral votes under the guise of election reform.

But here’s a bipartisan solution: an electoral vote buddy system. Red and blue states of similar size should pair up and pass state laws to apportion their electoral votes by district.

It would seem counterintuitive for a Democratic legislature in New York to cede a portion of its sure 31 Democratic electoral votes, but not if it opens up some of Texas’ 34 votes for the party. Washington State could make its 11 electoral votes relevant, in tandem with Tennessee, which also has 11. In this past election, voters in Louisiana (nine electoral votes) and Mississippi (six) could have focused the candidates’ views on Hurricane Katrina rebuilding had they buddied with New Jersey, which has 15 electoral votes. That might have also yielded more debate about urban transportation issues.

Imagine how different the campaign would have looked if Mr. Obama, rather than making repeat visits to Denver and Dayton, Ohio, had stopped in San Antonio and Houston, while Mr. McCain held rallies in areas of relative Republican strength in New York like Dutchess County and Staten Island.

As most of the electors now cast votes that were ceded by the other party well before the Iowa caucuses, perhaps their state legislatures will take notice of Nebraska’s William Forsee, whose ballot was never taken for granted, and start looking around for a buddy.

Randall Lane, the former Washington bureau chief for Forbes, is the editor in chief of Doubledown Media.