We confess we got all caught up in the "Superbowl Phenomenon" yesterday, and thus left at least one of yesterday's notable flurry of Standard-Examiner articles stranded on the back burner. To begin clearing out at least out some of our built up article queue, we'll thus call our readers' attention to yesterday's most excellent Representative Neil Hansen (D-Ogden) guest commentary, which is laden with encouraging news:
• Game plans and strategies are part of the LegislatureRep. Hansen provides plenty of interesting state government information, including the tantalizing news that Democrats and Republicans are talking across the aisle and actually "beginning to listen to each other," which is highly newsworthy "man bites dog" information in and of itself.
But let's cut to the chase. Here's the aspect of yesterday's Neil Hansen piece which really caught our eye, on a topic which is necessarily of great interest to Emerald City lumpencitizens:
Referring back to the Government Operations standing committee I serve on, I'm embracing Gov. Huntsman's recommendation to propose specific legislation that will help increase voter turnout by allowing election-day voter registration so people can register and vote on the same day.Kudos to House Representative Neil Hanson for his percipient efforts to add these reforms to Utah election law. Had such legislation already been in place in November of 2007, the lumpencitizens of Emerald City would have been spared major municipal election headaches.
Additionally, I'm proposing legislation that I believe will increase voter turnout and has bipartisan support is HB 49 Voter Challenge Amendments. This bill requires that written challenges to a person's right to vote in an election be filed in advance of the election and provides procedures for filing and resolving the challenges before the date of the election; requires the election officer to notify each person whose right to vote in the election has been challenged in writing and permits the person who has been challenged to provide information in response to the challenge; requires that written challenges be submitted under oath and be subject to criminal penalties for false statements; provides that an election officer's determination regarding a challenge to a person's right to vote is subject to judicial appeal; requires all documents filed in relation to a written challenge to be public records; clarifies language relating to challenges to a person's right to vote at the polling place.
We'll keep our fingers crossed in the hope that Rep. Hansen and his Republican colleagues continue to cooperate cross-aisle. Reforms such as these serve the interests of all Utahns, of all political stripes. If our legislators can't agree on issues so elementary and fundamental as these... what the hell CAN they ever agree about?
Let's have some reader comments on this.
It's time to clear away those Super Sunday cobwebs, folks.
