"There Oughta Be a Law"? Governor agrees, signs CA bill mandating polling places

A bill that guarantees California voters have a place in which to vote on Election Day has been signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Proposed by Palo Alto resident Lynn Silton and presented by State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), SB 1342 addresses the recent trend of mail-in voting, which has affected the availability of polling stations.

The idea was first developed by Redwood City resident Dennis McBride, who won Simitian's annual "There Oughta Be a Law" contest in 2007. Though Simitian later turned McBride's idea into a proposal that passed through the state legislature, the bill was vetoed by Schwarzenegger.

This year, Silton co-proposed the bill with McBride for the "There Oughta Be a Law" contest and was one of three winners.

"My concern was that I wasn't getting a choice," Silton said in a March 29 Palo Alto Weekly article. "I don't doubt the honesty of our current registrar, but whenever possible, citizens should be involved in the process."

Keep reading.

To read more about the problems with mail-in voting, see this earlier blog post

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