California Secretary of State candidates, Democratic State Senator Alex Padilla and Republican Pete Peterson, took part in a conversation today sponsored by the Public Policy Institute of California.
Padilla says he'd favor a range of voting options, from same-day registration to multiple-day voting periods. He California should also require more frequent disclosures of campaign contributions.
“We’re still on these reporting periods, where depending on the year, candidates and campaigns can go six months without having to disclose where their money comes from." Padilla says.
Peterson stressed using outside tech companies to help improve the gathering and dissemination of information. And he says current data on voter registration can’t be trusted because the voter rolls are outdated.
“California is the last state in America without a state-wide voter database," Peterson says. "We’ve been outside the federal mandate for about a decade now. I am shocked no one has sued the Secretary of State because we fall outside the federal mandate.”
Both candidates support the state’s new top-two election system, though Padilla says the jury is still out on its ultimate affect on the state's top offices. Both say California needs to study how electronic voting can be incorporated into elections.
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