So who exactly is on the ballot on Tuesday?
By adamg - Sat, 02/02/2008 - 12:57pm.
Dunno, let's go to the Secretary of State's Web site and find out! Oh, right, Secretary of State Bill Galvin doesn't want to post a copy of the ballot.
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To be fair to the "Prince of
To be fair to the "Prince of Darkness," it's pretty much right here.
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepres/presorder.htm
Webpage up since 12/11/07
And I checked the date on that webpage -- it was created on December 11, 2007. Prince of Darkness gets a passing mark on this one.
Steve was talking about a copy of the actual ballot
See here, so sort of like what you see on the wall when you vote.
Sample ballots
One problem with sample ballots: there needs to be a different one for every ward of every city and town in the Commonwealth. That's because on Tuesday, you are choosing not just Presidential candidates, but also members of ward and town party committees.
(I'm on the Democratic ballot for Somerville Ward 6.)
Galvin should do more....
Frankly, it would not be difficult to develop a web interface that would give you a complete list of candidates for all offices, including propositions, for every resident in Massachusetts. Users could provide an address or zip code and a sample ballot could be calculated and displayed. It might not look exactly like the one you will use at your polling place, but it would contain all the same information. This just is not that hard to do and Galvin should be doing it.
Please post a few specimen ballots!
Try calling your local election department for a fax of a specimen ballot. Transcribe your specimen ballot content similarly typing it out according to how it's laid out on your specimen ballot. Or scan your specimen ballot and put it up here for others who haven't contacted their local election department. Seeing how it's formatted ahead of time makes it easier to vote when at the poll, for example for people with concerns about like symptoms of dyslexia or ADD.
For example...
Send-To:
By email [name@email.address] please send a specimen ballot for the election...
http://www.cityofboston.gov/contact/default.asp?id=33
http://www.cambridgema.gov/election/
http://www.somervillema.gov/Department.cfm?dept=ELECT
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elecon.htm
Specimen ballots for Brookline
http://www.townofbrooklinemass.com/townclerk/ElectionSchedule.html
Somerville sample ballots
are here. Unfortunately they are huuuuge PDFs and take forever to load.
City of Boston Election Department
City of Boston Election Department http://cityofboston.gov/elections hasn't provided a specimen ballot by email nor on the web violating public records FOI freedom of information principles.
It's 2008, City Hall should be held more accountable for complying with public records FOI freedom of information principles and sunshine open public meetings principles of open government.
Are advocates for change in Boston too few?... except for the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods to promote citizen participation and communication at
http://www.abnboston.org/blog.html
and at
http://www.abnboston.org
A Mayoral Directive and City Council Order are needed to address the need for more routine transmittal of city public documents to our Boston Public Library and on demand making available on the web city public documents.