Micah L. Sifry

Many local governments are moving to enact their own vote-by-mail plans, including Milwaukee, WI; Allegheny County, PA, Broward County, FL, and the state of New Hampshire, Rachel Cohen reports for The Intercept. (By the way, in Tuesday’s First Post, when I wrote that NY Governor Mario Cuomo had announced plans to mail ballots to all registered voters in the state, you knew I was talking about his son Andrew, right? Sorry about that brain burp–when he does really liberal things I must think he’s his dad.)

Here’s a useful explanation of why states have to get moving now if they want to be ready to mail out tens of millions of ballots by next fall, courtesy of Tierney Sneed of Talking Points Memo. A clue: it starts with something called the National Association of Presort Mailers.

Remember when we had a (semi)functioning representative body? Congress remains in limbo because of COVID-19, though here in hard-hit New York City, the city council held its first-ever virtual meeting, via Zoom, on Wednesday, as Jeff Coltin reports for City and State. City residents had some fun discovering the quirks of some city council members, like our friend Ben Kallos and his enormous cat.

Charts are us! New York City councilman Ben Kallos, one of the few computer programmers in elected office, has introduced a bill that would require pie charts explaining where council candidates get their contributions from. “What if politicians wore NASCAR logos?” Kallos asked the New York Post’s Rich Calder. “In NASCAR, you get to see who is paying right on the hood of the car. A pie chart showing where politicians are getting their money from is the next best thing.” On a more serious note, Kallos also wants more transparency for donations coming from homemaking spouses and college kids whose giving is often a way for well-heeled donors to skirt the campaign contribution limits.

New York City councilor Ben Kallos has introduced the Free and Open Source Software Act that would require the city to use open source software before purchasing proprietary software.