Bill Galvin

Bill Galvin blinks

adamg — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:31:57 -0400

DJDiva is annoyed that the Secretary of State's online form for getting a voter registration form (you can't actually register online) uses the <blink> tag (note: You can only see it in operation with Firefox or, gasp, Netscape; it doesn't do anything in IE):

UGH why why why why? ... Granted they wanted to make it clear that my voter registration update wouldn't be final until I mail in the form. But instead of the irritating blink tag taking away my attention from the action I'm trying to perform, why not use a different color text, like red to call my attention, make the text bold (they did that), and make it a slightly larger font size? ...

The Dark Prince of Beacon Hill keeps doing his thing

adamg — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:41:26 -0400

This is nice: The Red Sox have gotten $13.6 million in state tax credits to refurbish Fenway Park and surrounding buildings and plan to ask for $26 million more.

Bruce Mohl reports the news in a CommonWealth article (free registration required) on the Prince of Darkness himself, Secretary of State Bill Galvin.

Seems Galvin - the man who is supposed to help citizens gain access to public records - does his best to keep secret the recipients of a $50-million annual historic-preservation tax-credit fund he oversees:

It took nearly two months to obtain a complete list of the tax credit awards, and then only after filing a public records request for the information. Although Galvin's office urges government officials to waive any fees associated with providing access to public records, Galvin's staff charged CommonWealth close to $300 just to look at four tax credit applications.

Via Rick Holmes.

Bill Galvin, secretary of hypocrisy or just too patient?

adamg — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 12:12:38 -0500

OK, so Secretary of State Bill Galvin vows to take over the Boston elections department because of that ballot-shortage issue the other night. Andy at Mass. Revolution Now wonders where the Dark Prince was before the election - when Boston was already under federal investigation on various election issues:

... Bill Galvin has been in charge of voting supervision in this state for something like 12 years and only now is he going to get serious about looking out for voters?

So what does anyone think we can expect from Billy? Well his latest idea has been bringing in the electronic disaster machines manufactured by Diebold. I feel so safe having Billy on the job now. ...

Actually, this isn't the first time Galvin has yelled at Boston elections officials, and Tuesday's ballot shortage might just be the proverbial straw.

The Globe's Political Intelligence reports that Galvin "issued a scathing report" on the city's election performance back in 2003. And you'll recall the whole Dianne Wilkerson/Sonia Chang-Diaz mess, in which the city elections department failed to even count any votes in several precincts this past September.

Democratic rebellion against the Dark Prince

adamg — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 10:05:33 -0500

After watching the debatelet between Secretary of State Bill Galvin and Green challenger Jill Stein (held at a Cheneyesque undisclosed location at Galvin's insistence), Bob concludes he cannot support the Democratic incumbent and so will vote for Stein:

Galvin is not fit to hold the Secretary of State's office. He doesn't appear to respect the fundamental premise of our system of government: the people are sovereign. ...

The shortest debate ever

adamg — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:19:17 -0500

Well, not counting the infamous "You called me a lizard!" debate between Ray Flynn and David Finnegan back in the day, that is. So set aside 16 minutes to watch the debate between Secretary of State Bill Galvin and Green opponent Jill Stein.

Secretary of State seems like another one of those colonial-era holdovers that has no business being an elective office, but whoever holds it does oversee elections (as in: play with electronic voting machines) and has some say over corporate governance in Massachusetts.

In and out

adamg — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 22:01:47 -0500

In: Hoyer and Cherington as joint Sox GMs.

Out: Bill Galvin as candidate for governor.

Bill Galvin: Wonkish, but capable

adamg — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 10:37:15 -0400

That's Sco's reaction to possible Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Galvin after seeing Galvin speak recently:

... He was much better speaking off the cuff in a small group than I've seen him on television or in front of larger audiences giving prepared remarks. ...

Sco also reports on a Deval Patrick speech he took in.