Ali OTO

San Francisco– Democratic nominee for secretary of state Michela Alioto today called on secretary of state Bill Jones to oppose Bob Dornan�s plans to deploy �election observers� during this fall�s elections.

The Orange County Register recently reported that Dornan is investigating the possibility of placing election observers at polling places on Nov. 3rd and that Dornan plans to contact California Secretary of State Bill Jones to determine if such observers are permitted. In January of this year Jones stated “there is nothing inherently wrong with poll watchers, as long as it does not cross the fine line to intimidation as happened with the poll guards in 1988″ (Los Angeles Times, 1/18/98).

Alioto stated that Dornan�s plan was clearly designed to intimidate minority voters and called on Jones to oppose it. “Subtlety is not Mr. Dornan�s strength,” Alioto said. “Mr. Jones should not trust Bob Dornan to understand where the �fine line to intimidation� is to be drawn, especially given Mr. Dornan�s continued delusions about his 1996 loss.”

Alioto noted that in the same Orange County Register article Dornan claimed that the presence of election observers in Nicaragua and El Salvador “allowed them to have more honest elections than I had [in 1996].” “Only Mr. Dornan would suggest that we should conduct our elections as they do in Nicaragua or El Salvador,” Alioto said. “I must insist that Mr. Jones denounce these tactics and rhetoric. The secretary of states� office should strongly oppose Mr. Dornan�s plans.”

Dornan�s plan mirrors a 1988 incident, during which the Orange County GOP posted about 20 uniformed security guards at polls in the district where Assemblyman Curt Pringle, R-Garden Grove, was elected. The Republican party later settled a lawsuit for $400,000. Legislators responded to the incident by making it a felony to hire armed or uniformed poll guards.

San Francisco– San Francisco, CA– For the second time in one month, Democratic nominee for secretary of state Michela Alioto has implemented an on-line voter information program sooner than Secretary of State Bill Jones� office.

Alioto�s latest program links all internet websites of candidates for statewide office to Alioto�s campaign website. By logging on to the site (www.Alioto98.com), internet users may easily access the websites of all statewide candidates who have submitted a website address for inclusion in the voter pamphlet.

In contrast, Jones is asking candidates to submit their website addresses by September 24. A letter from his office to candidates does not state when the addresses will be posted on Jones� official government-funded site.

The move comes after Alioto�s late-August posting of Alioto and Jones contributions on-line in a searchable database. Jones� program for on-line posting is not expected to go on-line until mid-October, only days before the election and more than 6 weeks after Alioto�s posting.

“One of my young staff members put this program together in about 4 hours,” Alioto said. “Establishing website links is one of the easiest applications one can implement on the internet. I can�t imagine what Jones is doing over there. Why does he need to ask for everyone�s permission to do his job?”

“Providing information to voters in a timely fashion is the job of the secretary of state, and voters require this information now,” Alioto said. “The incumbent is timing the release of this information to maximize its political dividends. This does not serve the public need.”

San Francisco– Democratic nominee for California Secretary of State Michela Alioto today sharply criticized Secretary of State Bill Jones for accepting his legislator�s salary and per diem while missing hundreds of votes on the floor of the Assembly during the 1994 legislative session.

As a member of the California Assembly in 1994, then-Assemblyman Bill Jones missed 332 floor votes during the 1994 legislative session, Assembly records show. The number of missed votes reflects Jones� 1994 floor record only (the last of the twelve years that Jones was in the Assembly) and does not include missed committee votes.

In 1994, legislators received a per diem of $101 per day once they checked in at morning roll call. The per diem payment was in addition to a legislator�s annual salary of $52,500, and legislators could opt to waive the per diem if they were conducting personal business.

Jones failed to waive his per diem on days he missed votes. In fact, Jones often claimed his per diem only to miss dozens of votes later in the day, a pattern that became more frequent in the fall of 1994 while he was in a tight race for secretary of state. For example, on August 29 Jones checked in at roll call and then missed 38 floor votes; on August 30,Jones checked in and then missed 64 votes; on August 31 he checked in at roll call and then missed 27 votes. All told, Jones missed 248 votes in August of 1994 alone, and collected a total of $5,050 in per diem pay on days that he missed votes.

“While the Assembly was holding floor votes on scores of issues, Jones was not to be seen,” Alioto said. “Jones was in a competitive race for higher office at the time. He should explain where he was and what he was doing when taxpayers were paying him to represent them.”

Over the past year, Jones has repeatedly criticized Alioto for failing to vote as a private citizen in several elections in the early to mid-1990s. In a letter recently sent to Alioto, Jones wrote “[v]oters…throughout the state have repeatedly told me that they believe voting is a critically important qualification for this constitutional office.”

“I have, and always will, take responsibility for my actions,” Alioto said. “It is time for Mr. Jones to explain why he ignored this �critically important qualification� when he was being paid by taxpayers to represent the people�s interests.”

“The public trusted Mr. Jones to carry out the duties of a member of the California Assembly, and taxpayers paid him over $60,000 in 1994 to do his job,” Alioto said. “Mr. Jones failed the people who elected him and who paid him. He took the money and ran.”

It’s a simple fact of today’s electoral system that young women between the ages of 18 and 45 vote less frequently than males in the same age bracket. Many women in this age group are know as “drop-off” voters: they vote in presidential years, but not in critical off-year elections such as our up-coming November election.

The fact that young women vote less frequently than young men has great ramifications for a host of public policy issues that affect women. Issues such as a woman’s right to choose, the education of our children, and public safety are being disproportionately decided by men.

Michela Alioto believes that we must make reforms in our electoral system that will lead to fairer representation for all Californians. Multi-day elections, same-day polling place registration, and permanent absent voter status are ideas that have been implemented in other states and will improve voter turnout here in California as well. Innovations in communications technology, such as on-line voter registration, on-line voting pilot programs, and other information services will also increase voter participation, particularly among young women.

Michela Alioto believes that if we hope to send the right message to the young women of California, we must lead by example. In her campaign for Congress in 1996, she was occasionally criticized for being “too young” for the job- a criticism that was not leveled at the scores of young men in their 20’s who have been elected. The right message to send to young women is that we can succeed as often as men, if we are tenacious and persistent enough. Unfortunately, there has never been a young woman elected to a statewide office in California to serve as an example of this fact.

The Secretary of State is the third-highest constitutional officer in the State of California, and as a result, can act as a high-profile spokesperson for the scores of issues that affect women in our state. As a pro-choice, Democratic woman, Michela Alioto understands these issues.

As a candidate who has run for both federal and state office, Michela Alioto is experienced in the advantages and disadvantages of both systems.

Present Federal law restricts the amount an individual or a political action committee (PAC) may give to a political campaign. These limitations have not been changed since first put into law in the 1970’s. The result of this reform has been to drive funding to different areas, such as “soft” contributions to political parties or independent expenditures. The result is that while vast sums of money are being used to alter the outcome of races all around the country, the true source of this money is largely unaccountable.

Present California law allows unlimited contributions to committees in support of a candidate. Unfortunately, these contributions are also largely unaccountable. Patterns of contribution become lost in voluminous campaign reports. Late contributions may swing electoral outcome before the scope of donor activity is known. Contributions may go unreported for up to three months, and are unaccountable for this period.

In response, Michela Alioto supports existing California law which allows unlimited contributions to committees, but only if the following conditions are met:

• All contributions in excess of $5,000 must be reported within 72 hours of receipt, independent of the reporting quarter in which it is received.
• All corporate or political action committees must be “tagged” with identifying codes which state the primary business or interest of the group (a lumber company, for example, might be tagged “L” for lumber and an environmental group might be tagged “E” for environmental. Similarly, individuals, PAC, and corporations would be tagged with an I, P, or C, respectively. This system would facilitate electronic analysis of campaign contributions.
• Contributions in excess of $10,000 would not be allowed within the 10 day period prior to election day.
• All contribution reports would be posted in a searchable database format on the Internet with 48 hours of receipt by the Secretary of State’s office.

Michela Alioto sees vast potential for using modern information technology to increase voter participation and make voting more accessible. As Secretary of State, Michela Alioto will work to implement innovative technologies to increase voter registration and political participation.

Implement voter registration over the Internet. Michela Alioto feels that every eligible person should be able to register to vote at any time of day or night from a computer. Online registration will increase the participation of all voters, but especially young voters who have embraced technology as part of their lives.

Long the leader in political innovation, California is now behind some other states in online voter registration. Oregon and Florida, for example, have an online form that users fill out and e-mail to their Secretary of State’s office. The office then mails a completely filled-out voter registration card back to the user, who simply signs and mails it. In California, a registrant must download and print a file provided by the Federal Election Commission, fill out the form by hand, and then mail the card to the Secretary of State.

California needs to implement and promote an online voter registration project separate from the FEC site. Some technological challenges, such as the development “digital signatures,” will need to be overcome.

Make more local election information available over the internet. Polling place locations, election dates, and a full list of ballot measures and candidates need to be available over the internet for every county in the state of California.

Presently, some private sites offer this service on a regional basis. Silicon Valley’s “Smart Voter” is a privately run site, and is a good example of the type of service that is needed statewide. A visitor to the site types in his or her street address and zip code, and a polling place, upcoming election dates, candidate information, and ballot measure information are returned.

As secretary of state, Michela Alioto will work to ensure that this type of service is available in every county in the state.

Conduct pilot programs for online voting. Michela Alioto sees a future in which people are able to vote online, and feels that if we are to prepare ourselves for the inevitabilities of the future, we must begin today.

Again, California is behind some other states in offering this service. Florida, for example, is conducting an online voting pilot program for the 1998 elections, which will enable absentee balloting over the internet. California, too, should begin work on a program that will allow online voting and that will ensure voter secrecy and electoral integrity.

Michela Alioto feels that strong voter participation is the key to a healthy democracy that represents all Californians.

Long a leader in political innovation, California now lags behind many states in electoral reform. As Secretary of State, Michela Alioto will work to reform the voting process in California by utilizing innovative approaches that expand opportunities for all eligible citizens to participate in elections.

Promote multi-day elections. Rather than have a single day on which to vote, voters should have a full week to make it to the polling place. The present system of a single voting day unnecessarily restricts access to voting; right now a mother who works and whose child has evening soccer practice is effectively eliminated from the political process. Allowing multi-day elections (such as those recently initiated in the State of Texas) will help increase voting opportunities for working families, women and students.

Implement same-day, polling place registration. Current law requires a voter to register 29 days prior to an election, which prevents many people from participating in the electoral process. Citizens should be able to register to vote when they arrive at their polling place upon presentation of valid identification.

To safeguard against fraud, the state should implement a voting process similar to that currently used when a pre-registered voter fails to appear on the precinct list (a “provisional” vote). States like Maine and Wisconsin already have safe and effective same-day registration. California should as well.

Extend permanent absentee voter status to all voters. Those with disabilities and the elderly and bed-ridden already have permanent absentee voter status. This right should be extended to all other registered voters as well so that citizens may contemplate their vote in the comfort of their own home.

Ensure that polling places are accessible. Michela Alioto has used a wheelchair since she was 13 and knows from experience that, despite state and federal laws, polling places are not always accessible. As secretary of state, she will ensure that federal and state laws are adhered to, and more importantly, that counties have the resources they need to comply.

Before running for Congress in 1996, Michela Alioto spent two and a half years working in the White House for Vice President Al Gore. As a member of his domestic policy team, Michela conducted daily domestic policy briefings for the Vice President on issues such as telecommunications reform, the environment, education and crime. In addition, Michela prepared the Vice President’s weekly telecommunications updates.

Previous to working for the Vice President, Michela was a White House transition liaison for the Department of Health and Human Services, writing briefing materials for Donna Shalala. During the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992, Michela was responsible for nationwide outreach and policy development as the campaign’s Disability Constituency Coordinator in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Michela was involved in a ski lift accident in 1981 that left her unable to walk, and has been strongly involved in disability issues since that time. In 1984, at the age of 17, Michela became the youngest person appointed to President Reagan,s National Council on Disabilities Advisory Board. Michela has been a delegate to the United States-Japan summit conferences on disabilities, where she chaired the committee on Science and Technology.

Michela graduated from Convent of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco, and received a degree in Anthropology from the University of California at Los Angeles. She also spent a year studying at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan.

Michela is a member of the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Women’s Leadership Forum, and the Majority Council of EMILY’s List.

Michela has received numerous awards and honors, including seconding the nomination of Vice President Al Gore at the Democratic national convention in August of 1996. She has been named one of the top 21 up-and-coming women leaders in the country by Ms. Magazine, she is a Henry Crowne Fellow with the Aspen Institute, and she was a delegate to the Lifetime Summit on Women in 1997. Michela has been profiled in nationwide magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Time, and People.

Michela comes from a political family. Her grandfather, Joe Alioto, was the Mayor of San Francisco from 1968-1976 and was a gubernatorial candidate; her aunt Angela Alioto was a San Francisco Supervisor from 1988-1996.

Michela lives in St. Helena in the Napa Valley, where she is a partner in a wine business. She coaches Special Olympics softball in neighboring Solano County.

“We have 19 million eligible voters. Of those, we have 14 million who register to vote. In the 1998 primary election, less than 6 million actually voted. So less than half the people eligible are voting. As the chief election officer for the state, I think the main goal is to increase voter participation.” — Michela Alioto