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Globe: Beacon Hill Fog

Adam — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 16:01:30 +0000

The Boston Globe just published a substantial feature on transparency — or lack thereof — in Massachusetts government. Click here for the original story. – By David Scharfenberg If you want to see your government in action, just take a seat in the gallery high above the Massachusetts House of Representatives. But don’t take a [...]

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Governing: 2014 Elections Where Third-Party Candidates Could Make a Big Difference

Adam — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:52:29 +0000

This is a reprint from Governing magazine. Click here to read the original article. I find such reports eery in their glib observations that the presence of third candidates could make “a big difference” or make for “interesting outcomes.” The elephant in the room — the dirty design flaw of our voting system that subverts [...]

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GovTech: 7 Ideas for Local Government

Adam — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 16:18:19 +0000

I found this list from Government Technology particularly inspiring. Click here for the original article. -Adam – The Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge and the Knight News Challenge are two great contests that have provided hundreds of ideas of what Gov2020 might look like. Both struck a chord with innovators as the Mayors Challenge had more [...]

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Globe: For freshman in Congress, focus is on raising money

Adam — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 15:09:43 +0000

This recent Globe article provides a harrowing glimpse into the hours that should be devoted to crafting policy whiled away on raising money to preserve power. Want to do something about it? Support Lawrence Lessig’s MayDay PAC. – New members get the message quickly or they’re gone. It’s a fact of life in a gridlocked [...]

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MassLive.com: Voting rights activist Adam Friedman is the man behind Massachusetts election results database

Adam — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 12:15:17 +0000

The Republican / MassLive.com wrote a profile about me and my civic technology work. Below is an excerpt. Read the full article on MassLive.com. – By Shira Schoenberg The annual books run 500 pages long, filled with tables of election results. Who won the 2002 state representative race in Colrain in 2002? What was the vote [...]

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Globe: Why public sector gets technology wrong

Adam — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 04:13:17 +0000

Melissa Threadgill, former aide to State Senator Jamie Eldridge, has written my manifesto. Click here for the original article. “I AM happy with the launch.” That’s what Massachusetts Labor Secretary Joanne Goldstein had to say about the state’s new online unemployment system, which erroneously cut benefits and continues to cause problems for hundreds of unemployed workers. The system, [...]

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Government Technology Horror Stories

Adam — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 19:55:47 +0000

This post will provide a regularly-updated running list of publicly-funded technology contracts gone awry, in which taxpayers spend millions of dollars for poor-quality software. Something is clearly wrong with public sector procurement and/or project management. Massachusetts Child Care Financial Assistance System, 11/20/2015 Computer woes delay child-care subsidies About 1,600 low-income children remain stuck on a [...]

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Press Release: Every Election at Your Fingertips

Adam — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 17:40:17 +0000

Secretary of the Commonwealth teams up with local web developer to “liberate” 40 years of elections and ballot questions Boston, MA – As Beacon Hill considers passage of a major election modernization bill, Massachusetts Secretary William Galvin has been quietly making upgrades of his own. With little fanfare, Galvin’s Elections Division recently launched a searchable [...]

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Massachusetts State Senate passes an incredible election law upgrade

Adam — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 18:55:51 +0000

Over 20 years have gone by without a significant update to our state’s voting laws. Meanwhile, dozens of other states are adopting online voter registration, early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, post-election security audits, and more. A grand coalition of over 30 grassroots organizations and led by MassVOTE and Common Cause, have been pushing hard for an [...]

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Wait, I just bought a sandwich. You won’t serve me water?

Adam — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 17:01:20 +0000

You might be eating at an upscale steakhouse, a hip bistro, or McDonald’s. No matter the venue, your frustration is the same. You kindly order a meal. The server says, “Would you like something to drink with that?” You say, “Sure, I’d love a cup of water.” “Sorry. We don’t have cups of water. We [...]

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