September 30, 2008
Schwarzenegger Punishes Voters in Six Vetoes

AP Photo/Jakub Mosur
Schwarzenegger has been signing and vetoing bills all week and has until the end of the day today to finish. Among the bills passed was the transportation sales tax increase proposal on to LA County's ballot and forcing fast food and chain restaurants to post calorie information. Of the bills vetoed, six of them were voter related, something Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who is the state's head election official, is not happy with.
"I'm dismayed the Governor doesn't believe it is a high priority to let voters know about their polling-place rights or if their votes were counted," said Bowen in a press release. "I understand the governor is not fond of the Legislature these days, but it's California voters who are being punished."
The laws vetoed would have "required polling place workers to inform decline-to-state voters in writing which primaries they could vote in, and a separate one that would tell permanent vote-by-mail residents whether their voters were counted and if not, why they weren't," according to PolitickerCA. "Other bills vetoed would've made it easier for voters to remove their names from ballot measure initiatives, recalls or referendums; clarified the law on how long voters can stay in the voting booth; and given vote-by-mail voters more information on when they would have to send in their ballots."



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Well, the vetoes look like they are a bit trivial to me personally. I am sure they were not "free" and would have required money to come from somewhere that doesn't exist right now.
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From what I gather all of the laws vetoed would have been addressed by Debra Bowen's office had they been signed. Is it just possible that she and her staff have already accounted for any additional expenses?
Seems to me the more the voter knows the better.
But I'm not surprised that a Republican would reject letting someone know if their vote counted, how long they could stay in a booth, the deadline for voting if by mail, and so on. An uninformed electorate is an ideal electorate...for the right-wing.