LAB: Wisconsin Voter Registration Evaluation

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Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau [PDF]:

We found that statutory requirements are not consistently followed. Among our survey respondents:

  • only 85.3 percent of municipalities removed the names of inactive voters from their voter registration lists;
  • only 71.4 percent sometimes or always notified registered voters before removing their names; and
  • only 54.0 percent reported removing the names of ineligible felons.

Because of such inconsistencies, registration lists contain duplicate records and the names of ineligible individuals. For example, when
we reviewed more than 348,000 electronic voter registration records from eight municipalities, we identified 3,116 records that appear to show individuals who are registered more than once in the same municipality.

Greg Borowski and Stacy Forster have more:

Among the 348,000 electronic voter registration records checked were 105 potentially improper or fraudulent votes including:

  • Ballots cast by 98 ineligible felons, including 57 in Madison.
  • Two people who appear to have voted twice.
  • Four cases of voters whose absentee ballots were included in official election results even though they died in the two weeks before the election.
  • One instance of a 17-year-old in Madison who apparently voted.

House Floats New Broadband Bill

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Grant Gross:

The 77-page draft legislation, released to generate discussion from broadband providers and other stakeholders, would also require broadband providers to allow subscribers access to lawful content, even though some broadband providers have suggested a so-called ‘Net neutrality requirement isn’t needed.

Representatives of Verizon Communications and SBC Communications in the past have said a ‘Net neutrality requirement could prevent them from cutting off service to bandwidth hogs or customers posing a security risk.

Bill Steinberg on the Katrina Debacle

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My good friend Bill Steinberg has published, via business partner Mark Baker a very useful look at the leadership vacuum that is the Katrina Response:

so for the mayor, the governor, the president and how many of the president’s men, those so-called law-makers on the hill, what goes around, comes around, we’re still left with the same unanswered question, how could you be so ___ stupid? all will ask ‘what happened?’ only so long as it takes them to find out who’s to blame – then they’re done learning anything from it that will give us a different outcome the next time it happens. and, as someone once said, doing the same things but expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity. welcome to ‘one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.’ keep everyone sick, it’s easier to get them to do what you want them to do that way.

Marotta Moves On and Leaves a Few Comments Behind

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Governor Doyle’s top aide, Marc Marotta offered up a few comments as he left that post for private law practice (and help raise money for Doyle’s re-election campaign).

*Although Marotta said he found “a lot of good, dedicated” employees in state government, he said the most frustrating part of his job was the “tremendous inertia” that buries every decision — large and small — in bureaucratic quicksand. “Every little issue has its own political world,” he added.

Man Bites Dog: Keillor Threatens to Sue Blogger for Parody?

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MNspeak.com

On a Tuesday night two weeks ago, the letter showed up in the mail. It is included below, so you can see for yourself the kind of verbal mastery it takes to make a legal document sound like Keillor’s forlorn nostalgic prose.
Let’s quickly review the situation: Garrison Keillor — a liberal comedian! — is threatening to sue MNspeak — some blog! — that uses a t-shirt to poke fun of his mega-gigantic media empire. You’d think we shot Guy Noir or something.

via Glenn

25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself

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Rajesh Setty [PDF]:

Why should you distinguish yourself?
Short answer: Being part of the commodity crowd erodes your value.

Long answer: Technology professionals worldwide are getting caught in a tsunami of massive commoditization. Technologies are changing very fast. What seemed hot today is not hot anymore. There is a constant pressure to give more, be more effective, be more efficient and be more productive. This forces most technology professionals to go after “short-term skills”. Of course, going after “short-term skills” will provide “short-term results” but will hurt them in the “long-run”. Competency in technical skills is necessary to succeed in this world but they are not sufficient to thrive. The question is what can one do differently so that he or she can distinguish and move above the commodity crowd ? The goal of this manifesto is to provide 25 ways to do just that.
Bonus: You have reached where you are by doing whatever you have done so far. If you need to leapfrog and succeed beyond dreams, continuing to do whatever you have done in the past may not be the answer. You need to think and be different. In other words, you need to distinguish yourself!