Counties stingy with ballot info

MAY 3, 2010

By KATY GRIMES

Ballotpedia recently did an analysis of California’s county election websites, with a focus on what information they make available about local ballot measures.

What’s interesting is that California’s county election Web sites vary greatly in the information they make available to voters about local ballot measures.

According to Ballotpedia, eight counties provide no historical election results at all for local ballot measures. Ironically, Shasta County provides the most information going all the way back to 1970.

Some of the larger California cities’ Web sites at least go back to the 1990’s: Los Angeles goes back to 1996, Sacramento to 1998, San Diego to 1991, San Francisco to 1995, and Yolo County to 1997. Orange County and Riverside County only go back to 2000, and Stanislas County goes back to 2002. Tulare County goes all the way back to 1984, with Shasta County being the most thorough, having information on the Web site going back to 1968.

Del Norte, Modoc, Napa, San Benito, Tehama and Trinity counties do not make historical information available on the county websites.

For information about local ballot measure information made available for specific contemporary elections, see:

Ballot measure information on California county websites for June 8, 2010 election

Here is the link to the Ballotpedia page on California Counties: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Ballot_measure_information_on_California_county_websites#Historical_information_analysis