Voters rights and electoral reform are on my mind these days. I worked as an election official for my Southern California county in the 2004 Presidential election, so I have an appreciation for what can go wrong. The undemocratic voting outrages last Fall, especially in Ohio and Florida, were substantial and unfair, and must be addressed.

I hope to devote time later this summer to writing about electoral reform legislation, as well as progress in various states to ensure that no one is denied the opportunity to vote. The 2006 elections are rapidly approaching, and now is the time to correct the problems.

Today, Murshed at DailyKos brings us hopeful news on the voting rights' front...."Thanks to efforts of election reform activists, the drumbeat for a requirement that all voting systems in the U.S. employ or incorporate a voter verified paper audit trail continues to grow stronger.

This weekend, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) is meeting in St. Paul. Not yet on the agenda but certainly in the strong rumor stage is a resolution calling for such a requirement for all newly purchased systems. This would force newly purchased DREs to come with a paper ballot printout, but optical scan machines and even hand-counted paper ballots would also fit the requirement. Such a move by NASS would be huge -- two thirds of the country's secretaries of state are their state's top election official....

We will be at the meeting. We'll try to keep you informed as the resolution progresses. Check back for more info during the weekend; the meeting ends on Monday afternoon."