Posts Tagged: motor

Motor voter: An electorate in flux

As rush hour approaches, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo: Frontpage)

by CHUCK MCFADDEN posted 10.26.2015

To political experts up and down California, California’s new Motor Voter law is a question mark that likely will involve rethinking some practices and require a great deal of new effort. To Democrats, it’s the long-overdue removal of a barricade to full participation in California’s civic life. To Republicans, it poses a danger that a flood of illegal immigrants will start participating in political decision-making.

Jean Shiomoto: From the Delta to the DMV

DMV Director Jean Shiomoto on the job. (Photos: Scott Duncan, Capitol Weekly)

by JAMES CAMERON posted 10.24.2014

Jean Shiomoto, who grew up on a pear farm in the Delta, has one of the toughest jobs in California – she runs the Department of Motor Vehicles. In this car-happy state – by one estimate, L.A. County alone has 5.9 million registered automobiles, more than all but five states – anything do with with automobiles is a big deal.

Covered California targets voter registration

Into the ballot box: A man votes in a California election. (Photo: Vepar5)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 04.23.2014

Under the terms of a legal settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union, Covered California is sending out registration mailers to nearly four million people who sought health insurance. The mailings, which have already begun, are the first step in an ongoing voter registration effort that will include this year’s month-long open enrollment period in the fall, when people choose new coverage plans or switch existing ones, and then continue into the future.

Property theft in California increased in the first year of correctional realignment, according to a new report by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California highlighting the policy’s possible effect on future crime rates. Under realignment, the state shifted responsibilities to the counties — including the incarceration of some state prisoners — and gave them money to cover the costs.

Steps taken to upgrade the state controller’s payroll computer system have stumbled in recent months.

The need to revamp critical technology is common throughout government, but making it happen for the controller’s office has been especially difficult. Authorities are grappling with decades-old technology as they have struggled to make a transition toward a new