'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The D.C. Board of Elections is expected to decide later today whether D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown collected enough petition signatures from city voters to be on the ballot this November, a hotly contested issue that has put the race for two at-large council seats front-and-center among the city's fall campaigns.
On the day before the D.C. financial control board returned city finances to local officials more than a decade ago, it approved a preliminary $1.8 million, no-bid deal with a company run by health care contractor Jeffrey E. Thompson to open a 24/7 health clinic for low-income residents of Southeast.
As states jockey for influential positions in the 2012 presidential primaries, civil-rights advocates are shifting into high gear to fight new laws that require voters to show a government-issued photo ID at the polls.
Mayor Vincent C. Gray's pick to head the increasingly vital D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics faces an uphill route to confirmation because of his residency status, an issue that derailed another mayoral pick mere weeks ago.
Mayor Vincent C. Gray's deputy chief of staff resigned from her post barely a week after she arrived at city hall, citing the "distraction" created by revelations she voted in September's D.C. primary despite living in Maryland.
Ms. Brizill, meanwhile, alleged the instance was part of an election-board practice of hunting down a registered voter's name to fit the signature on petitions.
D.C. elections board to decide challenge to Brown's nominating petitions →
"The bottom line is I don't think Mr. Spagnoletti gets it," said Dorothy Brizill, who runs the city government watchdog website DCWatch.
