Tag Archives: DCBOEE

News, The Daily Feed
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An end to corporate donations in DC?

Photo courtesy of nevermindtheend
VOTE
courtesy of nevermindtheend

Well, at least part of DC life.

Local political advocates Bryan Weaver (you remember him from his At-Large and Ward 1 council campaigns), Sylvia Brown (An ANC in Ward 7) and Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells are teaming up to put a ballot initiative on this November’s general election ballot to end Corporate Political Donations for local campaigns.  Should the measure get on the ballot (not a certainty), and pass (doubly so), DC would join 30 states and the Federal Government that forbid corporations from donating to local campaigns.

The group would need at least 20,000 signatures in order to get the measure on the ballot, but first it must pass some oversight by the Board of Elections & Ethics, and survive a challenge period.  Should it do those things, it would end up on the November general election ballot.

There’s been a lot of focus on the national stage about the role of corporations in politics, and I would expect that this measure would draw out a number of groups both for and against the corporate contributions. This will be one to watch.

We had hoped to get the text of the proposed amendment, but Mr. Weaver did not return contact ahead of this story breaking at the Post this morning.

News, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Petition Challenges Bear Fruit for Biddle

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‘Signature’
courtesy of ‘tbridge’

Councilman Sekou Biddle (D-At Large) has succeeded in the first part of his challenge to at least one of his challengers’ ballot petitions, and has preliminarily knocked Jacque Patterson off the ballot for the upcoming April election.  Today’s preconference hearings were an “opportunity for the candidate and the challenger to review the staff findings on each challenge and decide whether they want to proceed with a formal request for a public hearing,” according to DCBOEE’s Alysoun McLaughlin.

Preliminary results from DCBOEE showed today that Mara submitted 3,182 valid signatures, Weaver submitted 2,948 and Patterson submitted 2,217.  Each campaign was also furnished with a list of signatures that could be found to be valid, provided DCBOEE receives a change of address form within 10 days of today.  Mara submitted 992 of those, Weaver 261 and Patterson 565. Mara needs none of those potentially valid signatures to qualify, while Weaver would need 52, and Patterson would need a miracle.

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News, The District, The Features
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All About Voting Centers

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‘VOTE’
courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

The news came out about a week ago, that DC was considering moving to voting centers for the special election in April.  Since then, there’s been a lot to say on both sides of the issue, and some excellent points made by both sides about what it would mean to cut the budget for elections in the city.

Some have said that cutting back on voting is cutting back on government legitimacy.  If this new plan to move to voting centers dramatically alters the turnout of an election, or if the placement of the polls is such that prevents people from attending, I might agree with that contention.  Instead, it seems to be a way to increase turnout while also lowering costs.

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