Fellow Kossacks,

Thanks so much for your continued support of my campaign for California Secretary of State!  I just wanted to stop by and give you a quick update on our campaign, with only 15 short days before November 7th.

This past Wednesday, I debated my Republican opponent, appointed Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, before the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board.  (Thanks to ollieb who already posted a summary of the debate here!)  Hat tip to the Chronicle:  what they did was open up their editorial endorsement process for all to see.  What a fantastic idea!  

The editorial board debate gave me a great opportunity to highlight our differences and to demonstrate why I am the best qualified candidate to clean up our elections system.  And yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle endorsed me as their choice to be California's next Secretary of State.

Thanks to resnska, msinla, lorelynn, norm, and so many other members of the DailyKos community for keeping the serious elections problems in California and across America on the front-burner!

As many of you know, there's alarming news in our fight for fair and transparent elections:  California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson entered into an agreement with the Bush Administration's Justice Department last year to implement a statewide voter registration database system that will disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters in California.

Please join me in emailing Secretary McPherson now, demanding that he undo his agreement with the Bush Administration and roll back the regulations he adopted to implement it.

The special election to fill the San Diego Congressional seat vacated by Randy "Duke" Cunningham is next week, as well as over 20 municipal elections, and the registration deadline for the June 6 primary is May 22.  We don't have much time!

More below the flip.

Thanks so much to all of you who are fighting to restore integrity to elections across America.  As a State Senator, and now a candidate for California Secretary of State, I look forward to continuing that fight with you.  But we've got a lot of work to do.

As many of you know and have already blogged about this weekend, last Friday afternoon, as millions of Californians were preparing for their Presidents' Day holiday weekend, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson quietly re-certified Diebold electronic voting machines for the 2006 elections.

To rush through this re-certification, the Secretary of State had to go back on his word -- twice -- and violate federal and state law in the process.  Compounding this travesty is that the re-certification is based solely on the views and recommendations of people on the Secretary's payroll.  

That is completely unacceptable!  I urge you to join me in calling on Secretary McPherson to reverse his decision on Diebold by sending him an email now:

http://ga3.org/...