North Carolina State Board of Elections Site Rated Best in Country in Government 2.0

The website of the NC State Board of Elections has been rated best in the country by the group "Social Government" a group dedicated to turning US goverment agencies into Government 2.0. That means using the full powers of the internet to serve and engage the public and provide transparency.

State Election Web Sites: The Good and Bad
By Ethan Klapper on March 21st, 2009 Social Government

One of the most important functions of state government is to administer elections. A good Web site for a state elections body is essential to make the entire electoral process go smoothly. Users should be able to find voter registration forms, rules, absentee ballot information and results with ease. The Web site should not be cluttered and should be accessible.

After reviewing 49 of 50 Web sites (Iowa’s was not reachable), I can say without much hesitation that North Carolina has the best election Web site in the country. The Tar Heel State’s Web site uses a clean and crisp design that is organized without any clutter. All of the information is easy to find. As a bonus, voters are even able to look up provisional ballot information. The top bar of the Web site contains current
voter registration counts — a nice touch.

More on what Government 2.0 is from Wikipedia

Government 2.0

Government 2.0 is neologism for attempts to
apply the social networking and integration advantages of Web 2.0 to the practice of government. Government 2.0 is an attempt to provide more effective processes for government service delivery to individuals and businesses. Integration of tools such as wikis, development of government-specific social networking sites and the use of blogs, RSS feeds and Google Maps are all helping governments provide information to people in a manner that is more immediately useful to the people concerned.[1]
A number of efforts have been made to expose data gathered by government sources in ways that make it available for mashups.
The election of Barack Obama has become associated with the effective use of Web 2.0 technologies during his campaign, and in the implementation of his new government in 2009.[2][3][4]

Social Government is a group aimed at turning Government into Government 2.0 by provising analysis, interviews and lins about various U.S. government agencies Web and Web 2.0 initiatives.

Note - North Carolina also has 100 County Board of Elections, each with their own website. Almost all of these counties are at or near Government 2.0 . NC Coalition for Verified Voting urges the few counties that are not yet using the internet to faciliate voter participation to do so pronto. Perhaps we need some legislation to that effect, unless ordering this is within the State Board of Elections authority.

Conyers suggests congressional probe of ACORN

Representative John Conyers proposes congressional hearings regarding allegations of voter fraud and a protection racket by ACORN. Conyers said the House Judiciary Committee has never had a member of ACORN before the committee and in fairness should. Several members on the committee oppose the hearings, so there might not be any. Accusations against the group stem from charges by a former employee "fired for charging about $2,000 in personal expenses on an ACORN credit card."

Conyers suggests probe of ACORN
Calls fraud charges 'serious'
S.A. Miller (Contact)Friday, March 20, 2009

...The testimony by Pittsburgh lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh accused the nonprofit group of violating tax, campaign-finance and other laws by, among other things,sharing with the Barack Obama campaign a list of the Democrat's maxed-out campaign donors so ACORN could use it to solicit them for a get-out-the-vote drive. She also testified that the Democrat-allied group provided liberal causes with protest-for-hire services and coerced donations from targets of demonstrations through a shakedown it called the “muscle for the money” program.

...Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties that hosted Thursday's hearing, suggested there was not enough “credible evidence” to warrant a hearing focused exclusively on ACORN. Rep. Melvin Watt said he would concede that ACORN and some of its members engaged in voter fraud. But he said voter fraud was already covered by existing law and Congress has not further role in the matter. “I'm not coming to a hearing to have a trial on ACORN. That's not my job,” the North Carolina Democrat said.