LOS ANGELES – Six aspiring candidates for the California Secretary of State position shared their platforms in the first California Secretary of State candidate forum on Monday night, March 3, at The California Endowment headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles.
Six contenders – Democratic candidates Derek Cressman, Alex Padilla and CA State Senator Leland Yee, Republican candidate Pete Peterson, Green Party candidate David Curtis, and independent candidate Dan Schnur – are vying for the position currently sitting with Debra Brown (who is on her second and last term).
The forum discussed how to make improvements to California elections: improving voting turnout, implementing online voting registration and modernizing the voting system.
“The goal of the forum is to get voters the opportunity to learn and educate the series of California voting system and bring attention to the new California Secretary of State on how he can play the role to the eligible voters,” said Azalea Iniguez, Telemundo 52 broadcast journalist and anchor.
Around six to eight million Californians, who are eligible to vote, are not registered voters. According to US Census data in 2012, only 65.6 percent of Californians were registered to vote, making the state 45th in voting registration nationwide. In the 2012 presidential election, only 57.5 percent of Californian registered voters cast their votes, placing as 43rd state in the nation.
Summaries of debate forum
Each candidate had 90 seconds for an opening statement, 60 seconds to respond to each question and a two-minute closing remark.
Common Cause’s former vice president of state operations Derek Cressman (a Democratic candidate) called for the implementation of same-day voting registration [on Election Day] and Sunday voting registration to improve the voting registration system “to make every Californian vote counts.”
Architectural designer David Curtis, a Green Party candidate, hoped for a functional democracy that needs California’s voting primary system, “more candidate choices” for voters besides the top two primary finishers from the main American political party.
“Everybody deserves representation. [The] Secretary of State position should be non-partisan,” Curtis said.
Los Angeles State Senator Alex Padilla, a Democratic candidate, thought of allowing campaign funding information to be accessible to the public and promised to increase the voting registration turnout rates “as he stands and delivers” if elected for the position.
Pete Peterson, Pepperdine University’s Davenport Institute for Public Engagement executive director and the only Republican candidate, stated that poor technology causes low voting turnout that create “confusion to the public sector” and hoped for more voting machine transparencies.
Dan Schnur, the only independent candidate and former chairman of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, pushed for more civic classes in California middle and high schools to educate younger generations and underrepresented communities and help increase voting participation. Schnur also supported a fundraising ban during a California legislature session, to break the “link between political giving and government action.”
CA State Senator and Democrat Leland Yee pushed for online voting registration to become more accessible to voters, especially for people with disabilities and with limited English proficiency.
He also reminded voters that they must select a candidate with a good track record and not base their votes from “what they have said and done(sic).”
The forum allowed the six candidates to share and discuss their platforms on improving California’s electoral voting process.
“This [forum] is an opportunity for voters to [be educated about] what those issues are. It is very important for people to understand what role the Secretary of State [plays] and to oversee our democracy,” Lori Shellenberger, director of ACLU California Voting Rights Project, said.
Sen. Yee’s biggest concern
The only Asian American candidate running for the post, Sen.Yee told Asian Journal his biggest concerns about the Asian American community, in exercising their democracy.
“Asians Americans are one of the lowest voting turnout populations, when it comes to voting registration and voting participation. I am going to use all the resources as possible as I can to help the Asians register and cast to vote, and also, to work with the community and individuals helping them understand the importance of civic engagement,” Yee said.
The California Secretary of State candidate forum was presented by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), California Common Cause and League of Women Voters of California. FILVOTE and Asian Americans Advancing Justice Alliance co-sponsored the forum as well.
The candidate forum will be aired on LA 36 (Channel 36) on March 8, 12pm and March 9 at 2:30pm.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend March 8-11, 2014 Sec A pg.1)
