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Debra Bowen

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Newspaper Endorsements (Partial List)

• San Jose Mercury News

  Bowen better suited to be secretary of state

  "... Bowen, 50, understands this and is far more skeptical of electronic systems than McPherson. Throughout her 14 years in the Legislature, Bowen has been a leading advocate for open government. Using technology on behalf of democracy has been her passion. She sponsored legislation that put bills and committee reports on the Internet; she served on a committee that brought the court system into the electronic age. As secretary of state, she would require tighter rules on electronic voting and encourage the creation of open-source software to guarantee security and accuracy."

  "Their disagreement over SB 370, which Bowen sponsored last year, perhaps best illustrates the differences in philosophy and approach between her and McPherson. Now law, the bill required that counties use the voter-verified paper receipt, which touch-screen machines are now required to produce, for recounts and for random audits. McPherson opposed the bill, in large part because county registrars didn't want it. But SB 370 provides a critical check against fraud and machine malfunctioning, which Schwarzenegger recognized in signing the bill."

  "McPherson is less likely to challenge county officials. But if county registrars had their way, none of California's landmark electronic voting reforms, like a paper trail, would be in effect today. A secretary of state must be willing to lead the registrars on issues of voting integrity and accountability. Bowen would do this."

  Full text of the endorsement

• San Francisco Chronicle

  After hosting a debate between Senator Bowen and her opponent, the Chronicle saw that Bowen is the right person for the job.

  "In Bowen, California would have a secretary of state who is asking the right questions and has the grounding to know when she is getting straight answers. She recognizes that a conversion to electronic voting systems must be accompanied by appropriate safeguards -- such as paper trails and open source software -- that maintain public confidence in the electoral process."

• Pacific Sun Newspaper (Marin County)

  ... Bowen has been a leader on issues such as privacy, consumer rights and technology as well as public disclosure. She's also been a leader in election reform. In 1993, she sponsored legislation to place all legislators' bills and committee analyses on the Internet. In 1995, she wrote the nation's first law to help state agencies store their documents on computers, promoting better public access. Her bills to increase public access to more records were vetoed in 1997 and 1999, but led to a voter-approved constitutional amendment that achieved most of Bowen's goal. ...

  McPherson has been widely criticized for his implementation of federal voting legislation. On March 28, Bowen and the League of Women Voters each wrote to McPherson, pointing out figures from Los Angeles County showing nearly 43 percent of all registration forms—representing 14,629 people—had been rejected by the secretary of state's database, and urged him to alter his regulations and data matching criteria. The following day McPherson's spokesperson was quoted as saying the rejection rate was 26 percent across the state. Bowen says that county elections officials say historically only about 1 percent of all voters attempting to register to vote are found to be ineligible.

  In April, a representative of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University testified that McPherson's approach in California was "completely unfair," the most restrictive in the country and "an unmitigated disaster that will unfairly disenfranchise thousands upon thousands of eligible voters." He has quietly modified key policies since, but his record remains troubling. Bowen's intellect, experience and passion for reform perfectly suit her to this position. We endorse Debra Bowen.

  
  

Other Endorsements (Partial List)

For a more complete list of endorsements, please click here.

Nobody, and no machine, should be counting votes in secret.