| Elect Sen. Debra Bowen secretary of state |
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| The Daily Breeze |
| Oct 27, 2006 |
Editorial
The South Bay state senator has protected consumers during her career and she can do the same directing the state's electoral process.
Elections for California's top elections officer don't normally capture a lot of voter attention, but this year may be different. Voters continue to have security concerns about high-tech touch-screen voting systems, and county elections officials have struggled to comply with new federal rules designed to better ensure the integrity of our elections.
Against that backdrop, voters have two solid choices in the secretary of state race on Nov. 7. The appointed incumbent, Bruce McPherson, has done a credible job restoring order to the office after former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley resigned under pressure. Challenging McPherson is South Bay State Sen. Debra Bowen, who chairs the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee.
McPherson, a former state legislator and newspaper editor, said that under his leadership, the state has the strictest standards in the nation for electronic voting. Credit McPherson, too, with building cooperative relationships with country registrars despite the added work associated with last year's special election.
Bowen also has impressive credentials. The Democratic lawmaker wrote the legislation that put the texts and analyses of state legislation on the Internet. And Bowen has been a leader on many nonpartisan consumer issues. Her legislation has given people important tools to protect privacy and combat identity theft.
In addition, Bowen's SB 370 requires counties to use verified paper receipts produced by touch-screen machines for manual recounts and audits.
While we appreciate the work McPherson has done to raise the reputation of the Secretary of State's Office, we feel that Bowen's experience and her familiarity with technological issues, as well as her healthy skepticism about electronic voting systems, would take the office to an even higher level -- one that would bring greater transparency to elections and public records.
The senator promises to be a vocal advocate for voters and open government. Voters should elect Bowen secretary of state on Nov. 7.
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