Results tagged “election” from News 24/7

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Democrat Al Franken is poised to hold on to a 48-vote lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman as Minnesota's Canvassing Board awards a final pile of votes in the state's unsettled U.S. Senate race. But the counting isn't over yet.

The board on Tuesday is to award votes from about 5,000 challenges that had been withdrawn by both campaigns. Based on a draft report released late today by the Secretary of State's office, once those votes are awarded Franken will have 48 more votes than Coleman.

The two campaigns and the Secretary of State's office still have to agree how to handle an estimated 1,600 improperly rejected absentee ballots. And the state Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments over a Coleman claim that some ballots were counted twice.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown has changed his position with respect to the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8.

Brown filed a brief today saying the measure, which amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman, is itself unconstitutional because it deprives gay couples of a fundamental right.

After California voters passed Proposition 8 on Nov. 4, Brown initially said he would fight to uphold the ballot initiative in his role as attorney general, even though he personally voted against it.

He submitted his brief in one of the three legal challenges to Proposition 8 brought by same-sex marriage supporters.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Democratic sources say President-elect Barack Obama has selected former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary and will announce the appointment on Wednesday.

Two sources familiar with the selection process spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the selection.

Vilsack sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 but dropped out after poor showings in early primries. He endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and campaigned actively for her in the long primary campaign against Obama. After Obama defeated Clinton in the primaries, Vilsack endorsed him.

Vilsack served two terms as governor of Iowa, a major farm state. He was first elected in 1998.

A rookie council member was sworn in Tuesday night at the City Council meeting.
"It's going to be a fun four years, and I look forward to it," Edward Palmer said.

Palmer, a lawyer who ran on a public safety platform, won one of two seats up for election on Nov. 4, along with Ed Scott, an incumbent elected to a third term.

The two were sworn in by city Clerk Barbara McGee.

Third District Supervisor Neil Derry has endorsed Fred Shorett to in the upcoming special election for a City Council seat.

Shorett, a business-minded Republican, has is planning to make a go for the City Council seat that Derry held until being sworn in as Supervisor on Dec. 1.

Dena Peters, also a registered Republican, has also filed papers needed to prepare for a campaign. The council seat is officially nonpartisan and the formal nomination period is scheduled to begin Dec. 18 and to end Jan. 8.

Derry represented San Bernardino's 4th Ward, which is the northeastern part of the city.

The election is scheduled to be conducted on March 17. City officials plan to conduct the vote almost entirely by mail-in ballot.

Read more at SB Now.

andrew.edwards@inlandnewspapers.com

Former Supervisor Dennis Hansberger said today that he disposed of official records before his term expired Nov. 30.

He also said he could not speak to a county policy he approved as Board of Supervisors chairman in 2004 that provides for the retention of public documents when a supervisor leaves office.

"We cleaned out the documents appropriately," Hansberger said. "Every day people dispose of documents. I don't keep documents in my office which are departmental in nature, and 99 percent of what we do is departmental in nature."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama intends to round out his environmental and natural resources team with a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and three former Environmental Protection Agency officials from the Clinton administration.

The president-elect has selected Steven Chu for energy secretary, Lisa Jackson for EPA administrator, Carol Browner as his energy "czar" and Nancy Sutley to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Democratic officials said today.

Still unclear is whom Obama will tap for interior secretary.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic officials say President-elect Barack Obama intends to nominate Steven Chu for energy secretary, Lisa Jackson for environmental protection agency administrator and Carol Browner as his energy "czar."

Obama is expected to make the announcements in the coming weeks. Still unclear is whom Obama will tap for interior secretary.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal selections that have not been made public.

On Thursday, Obama will hold a news conference in Chicago to name former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle as secretary of health and human services. That choice has been known for some time.

Nonprofit groups say they're profitable. City officials say they're costly.

Voters next year will decide if so-called safe-and-sane fireworks are here to stay.

The City Council on Nov. 25 voted unanimously to reject an ordinance backed by Citizens for a Safe 4th of July that would repeal the ban on the sale of safe-and-sane fireworks here, thus sending the issue to voters on June 2.

"My position hasn't changed from the very beginning on this topic," said Councilman Frank Scialdone. "To me, it's not about money, it's not about economics. It's about one thing and one thing only, and that's public safety."

ATLANTA (AP) -- Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss handed the GOP a firewall against Democrats eager to flex their newfound political muscle in Washington, winning a bruising runoff battle tonight that had captured the national limelight.

Chambliss' victory thwarted Democrats' hopes of winning a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It came after a bitter month long runoff against Democrat Jim Martin that drew political luminaries from both parties to the state and flooded the airwaves with fresh attack ads weeks after campaigns elsewhere had ended.

Minnesota -- where a recount is under way -- now remains the only unresolved Senate contest in the country. But the stakes there are significantly lower now that Georgia has put a 60-seat Democratic supermajority out of reach.

The San Bernardino City Council today formally called for a special election to replace outgoing councilman Neil Derry.

Derry resigned as of 11:59 a.m. today to take a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. Until today, Derry represented the city's 4th Ward, which comprises the northeastern part of the city.

The council set the nomination period for candidates wishing to succeed Derry to begin on Dec. 18 and end on Jan. 8. The election, to be conducted almost entirely by mail-in ballot, is set for March 17.

andrew.edwards@inlandnewspapers.com

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh term.

The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after today's count.

That's an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.

Stevens, who turned 85 Tuesday, also revealed that he will not ask President George W. Bush to give him a pardon for his seven felony convictions.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A California gay rights activist filed a complaint today accusing the Mormon church of failing to report the value of the work it did to support the state's new same-sex marriage ban.

Fred Karger, the founder of Californians Against Hate, submitted the complaint to the enforcement division of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the agency that regulates campaign activity.

Karger alleges that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ran out-of-state phone banks, produced commercials and provided other services that must be reported as contributions to the Proposition 8 campaign.

CHICAGO (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama says he's resigning from the Senate, effective Sunday.

He is calling his four-year term "one of the highest honors and privileges" of his life.

The move was expected. Obama won the presidency last week over Republican John McCain.

It's now up to Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to name Obama's replacement. Congress is scheduled to meet in a special session next week.

More than 550,000 people voted Nov. 4, setting a record for the number of voters in San Bernardino County, according to the latest numbers released by the Registrar of Voters.
That number puts county turnout well above the 528,387 votes cast in the 2004 election.

Some provisional ballots still need to be counted, which is expected to further increase voter turnout numbers, said Registrar Kari Verjil.

The percentage of voter turnout in 2004 reached 71.5 percent after all the ballots were counted, a process that took about a month.

Currently, the voter turnout percentage is 66.39 percent with 550,909 votes cast. But Verjil expects those numbers to rise once the provisional ballots have been counted.

There are 829,756 registered voters in San Bernardino County. Nearly 280,000 voted for President-elect Barack Obama in the election. Approximately 253,000 voted for Sen. John McCain.

Verjil said the percentage of voter turnout currently appears lower than in 2004. But in terms of the sheer number of voters participating in the election, there was a significant increase.

"My hope is we will have over 70 percent turnout by the time we're certified," Verjil said. "I think it's going to be close."

Certification is scheduled for Dec. 2.

lauren.mcsherry@inlandnewspapers.com

A No on Proposition 8 rally in Redlands turned ugly Tuesday night, according to those holding the peaceful protest in front of a church.

Soon after the rally in front of the Redlands Mormon Temple on Fifth Avenue began, a man from a group supporting Proposition 8 on the other side of the street began taunting the protesters.

One thing led to another and he ended up pulling his T-shirt and revealing he had a gun, said Shelly Ayers, a San Bernardino woman who participated in Tuesday night's rally.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Gay rights groups in California plan to ask voters to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage they approved last week if legal challenges to Proposition 8 are unsuccessful.

In an e-mail to supporters, Equality California executive director Geoffrey Kors said today that he and other gay marriage advocates are aiming for a ballot initiative to reverse the ban in two years.

Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that overruled the California Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage, passed 52 percent to 48 percent.

Couples who missed the chance to wed and others have filed petitions asking the court to throw out the measure on the grounds that voters did not have authority to enact such a sweeping constitutional change.

Although election season is over, voters here probably will get one more shot to cast their votes on a hot-button issue.

The deputy city clerk has announced that Citizens for a Safe 4th of July collected enough valid signatures this summer calling for the City Council to either adopt an ordinance that would allow nonprofits to sell fireworks or allow residents to decide.

Sandra Medina, the deputy clerk, said the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Office would confirm this week that there were enough valid signatures.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's gay-rights movement has been beset by infighting and finger-pointing since the defeat of gay marriage at the ballot box, with some activists questioning the campaign's mild tactics, including the decision not to show same-sex couples in ads.

The movement's leaders "were very timid. They were too soft," said Robin Tyler, a lesbian comic who created a series of celebrity public service announcements with the slogan "Stop the Hate, No on 8" that were rejected because they were deemed too negative. "We were lightweights on our side."

Proposition 8, a measure to stop gay marriage in California, passed with 52 percent of the vote last week in a painful defeat for gay rights activists. The ban overrode a California Supreme Court ruling last spring that allowed 18,000 same-sex couples to tie the knot over the past four months.