Ballotpedia

Have you seen the new "Ballotpedia" web site yet? The site allows you to click on any state on the map graphic to get information about ballot measures and initiatives prior to the election. Click here to view the California site. In the tradition of Wikipedia, Ballotpedia is "a free, collaborative, online encyclopedia (which) focuses on ballots, ballot measures, ballot access for initiatives and candidates, petition drives, the supporters and opponents of initiatives and, in general, all things ballot." Also like Wikipedia, anyone is welcome to register and contribute information. According to the site's editing policies and guidelines, "Views should be represented without bias." (Yeah right...we're talking politics here, right?) : )

First Woman Presidential Candidate

Women didn't even get the VOTE until 1920! So how is it possible that Victoria Claflin Woodhull (born Victoria California Claflin in 1838) ran for President of the United States in 1872? As there was no law on the books preventing women from running for office, Woodhull was nominated by the newly-formed Equal Rights Party on May 10, 1872, at Apollo Hall, New York City. Frederick Douglass, famous orator, newspaper publisher, abolitionist, and former slave, was nominated Vice President. (Douglass never acknowledged this nomination. Instead, he served as a presidential elector in the United States Electoral College for the State of New York.) At the beginning of her campaign, she owned a stock brokerage (in partnership with her sister, Tennessee) and published a New York journal, "Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly." Yet Victoria spent election day in jail, having been arrested by the U.S. government under the Comstock Act for sending "obscene" literature through the mail. By the end of her historical run (Ulysses S. Grant was elected President), she had been evicted from her home and, by one account, had been jailed by the U.S. Government EIGHT times (during which time her printing press and personal papers were confiscated). Eventually acquitted of any crime,Victoria was nonetheless financially ruined by the experience, having spent a fortune in legal bills and bail. (For more info, read Miriam Brody's 2003 biography, Victoria Woodhull: Free Spirit for Women's Rights) What an amazing story! (Check out the ChicoLaura web site: www.ChicoLaura.com )