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Voter apathy a concern for secretary of state candidates

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The secretary of state is California’s chief elections officer, and the winner in the Nov. 4 election will inherit many challenges. Low voter turnout has been an issue in recent elections. In 2012, more than 5.5 million eligible Californians did not even bother to register to vote.

According to their candidate statements, both Alex Padilla and Pete Peterson want to change the office of secretary of state, auditing and reforming it to increase voter participation and modernize the voting processes.

Padilla believes in the importance of expanding the high school curriculum on civic education in order to educate youth on the importance of voting long before they’re able to register. His goal is to add 1 million new voters by the end of his first term.

While Padilla promises to reach prospective voters and involve them in the voting process, Peterson’s focus is modernizing the voting process, thereby making it easier for people to participate. According to his website, California has been ranked in the bottom five states when it comes to using technology in the voting process.

Another important function of the secretary of state is to maintain business filings.

“California has lost more jobs than any other state since the beginning of the recession,” Peterson writes in his candidate statement. “It’s one of the toughest states to start or grow a small business. As a former small business owner with technology experience, I will enable online business registration and filings and fight to reduce the outrageous Business Franchise Tax.”

There is a backlog of prospective new businesses waiting to receive their confirmation of incorporation from the Secretary of States’ office. While they are waiting, some of those businesses want to open bank accounts, so they register in Nevada or Texas, which have quicker processes.

Padilla agrees that business registration needs to be more accessible and user-friendly; he says will ensure new business can file online and begin operating within five business days.

Padilla has a familiar name; he represented his childhood community in the San Fernando Valley when he was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1999. At 26, he was the youngest Latino ever elected to the council and, two years later, the first Latino to serve as council president.

From there, Padilla moved to Sacramento, where he now serves as a state senator, representing the 20th District.

Peterson is the executive director of the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. In that role, he travels the state, training public officials about transparency and public engagement.

Peterson is basing his candidacy on his outsider status—the fact that he is not a career politician—and his experience at Pepperdine University.

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