THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2008
NEWS17A
WORLD
Voter registration goes online for easier access
New system was implemented in hopes of getting more registered voters, save money for voters
BY SCOTT TOLAND stoland@kansan.com
Douglas County citizens can now register to vote for upcoming elections without having to leave their homes. An online system was implemented to provide more accessibility for people in the county and could lead to an increase in registered voters.
For the first time, citizens will be able to access voter registration forms online by accessing Douglas County's Web site, which will allow them to save the time and effort of picking up a paper form. The system was implemented about a month ago.
County Clerk jamie Shew said that some people have already used the online method and that the system might result in more registered voters.
"It may, just for the pure fact that it provides more access to our office," Shew said.
"We have a very transitory population in Douglas County with commuters and the large amount of students in town," Shew said.
Shew said that accessibility was one of the main factors that went into the decision to add this new system. He also said that the system did not result in any additional expenses for the county.
"It gives them the chance to access our office without coming directly to our courthouse."
Douglas County is not the first Kansas county to install such a system, but instead is following the lead of one of its neighbors.
"We like to think we're the trailblazers," said Brian Newby, Johnson County Election Commissioner. "When we got the 'yes', we were ready to go."
Newby said that the online system is even more important for Johnson County than Douglas County because of the amount of people in the area. He also said that it allows his office to save time and money because the whole process can go much faster.
"It's a bigger deal for us than Douglas County," Newby said.
"We were probably more ready to do it because we were the ones asking them to do it."
No official figures exist that document the number of Kansas counties that now have a similar system in place, but one state official said he thought this number was on the rise.
Brad Bryant, who is in charge of elections and legislative matters
"People demand it to be on the Internet because it's more accessible."
at the Kansas Secretary of State's Office, said he definitely saw a trend when it came to voter information available online. He also said voter registration forms can still be
The process of accessing forms online may become popular with students at the University of Kansas, who will not have to leave their dorm rooms or apartments to register in time to vote.
"There still a demand for that, but everything's moving more towards the Internet," Bryant said.
"It gives them the chance to access our office without coming directly to our courthouse."
Damon Lang, Oskaloosa junior,
said that he thought it was a good
obtained in every county in the state.
JAMIE SHEW
Douglas County clerk
idea and was certain that the system will lead to more registered voters.
just how many Kansas counties now offer forms online, but said voter information is now entered onto computerized databases instead of being filed in a catalog
Bryant said he was unsure
"I'm sure it will," Lang said. "It will make it a lot easier."
system.
"I think there are a number of other counties who have the registration card on the Web site," Bryant said. "In recent years, everyone has moved to a computerized list."
Although the online system has been met with success so far, paper forms are still available at many locations in Douglas County, including post offices and the Veteran's Affairs Office.
Newby said he thought the system was beneficial for both the public and his office and said that Johnson County has already been processing hundreds of forms each month. He said that the system requires a little extra effort for voters to get the form to the office, but said that it made it easier for both parties involved.
WILDLIFE
"It's really good for everybody," Newby said. "I'm glad to hear Lawrence is doing it too."
Summer bear attacks leave Anchorage residents fearful
Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird
BY MARY PEMBERTON ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Even in a city whose logo is "Big Wild Life" the summer of 2008 is testing residents' tolerance for large carnivores.
The problem is bears, black bears and bigger grizzlies. So far this summer, three people have been maudled in the city. Some people say humans are to blame for the contro
On the other side is a growing chorus of people like Devon Rees, who want something done about the big bruins.
year," said Rick Sinnott, the area biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
When those bears are hungry, they come into the city to feed on salmon in its many creeks and streams, and Sinnott said that is not likely to change.
"They are going to be cheek to jowl with us forever" he said.
Sinnott said efforts are being made to expand the hunting of bears in Chugach. The state park was off limits to hunting grizzlies for 30 years. Last year, three permits were issued but hunters were unsuccessful.
"It is pretty much unsafe to walk around at night," he said.
On one recent evening, Rees heard splashing in the creek near his Eagle River home and assumed it was salmon. Seconds later, however, a bear rushed at him from the woods and knocked him to the ground.
Alaska Fish and Game biologists Sean Farley, left, and Rick Sinnott walk past a warning sign as they look for a bear along a path in Far North Bicentennial Park in Anchorage, Alaska on Wednesday where a jogger and a bicyclist were attacked by a sow with two cubs this summer. The attacks happened on wilderness trails trapped by humans and bears.
Killing all the bears is not a consideration, Sinnott said.
"Chugach State Park is a bear factory. It pumps out bears every
"I wasn't going to lay down and take it. The bear came and tried to fight me," said Rees, 18, who works in a meat store. "I started punching it in the head, kicking it and elbowing it ... I was boxing him using one arm to defend, one arm to strike."
Residents share the municipality — covering more than 1 million acres and with more than 360,000 people — with more than 300 black bears and 50 to 60 grizzlies. Aggravating the problem is that Alaska's largest city is snug up against the half-million-acre Chagus State Park, the third largest state park in the United States.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"It is a state park. People that use the state park, they want to see bears there," he said.
People using the city parks need to practice some common sense, said Dave Parker, a 25-year-old resident of Wasilla, outside the municipality.
"The bears were here before we were," Parker said. "You don't go swimming in shark-infested waters and don't expect to be bit."
Alaska Fish and Game has received 500 to 600 bear complaint calls in Anchorage this summer, usually from people reporting a bear on their deck, in a neighbor's garbage or running through vards.
A week ago, runner Clivia Felz was attacked by a sow with two cubs in Anchorage's Far North Centennial Park. She had stopped to consider the orange sign with a bear silhouette that warns people way from Rover's Run trail, which follows a salmon-rich stream. But then she saw a bicyclist head down the trail, so she did, too.
"The sow found her and beat her up pretty good," Sinnott said.
Feliz was bitten on her head and neck and suffered a collapsed lung.
Six weeks earlier, 15-year-old Petra Davis was attacked by a grizzly on the same trail at about 1:30 a.m. while competing in a 24-hour bike race. She was hospitalized and treated for a crushed trachea and partially severed carotid artery.
Sinnott said he was surprised anyone thought it was a good idea to hold an all-night bike race in a park known to have bears and
along a creek filled with salmon.
"I was kind of dumbfounded," he said. '
There have been at least four other encounters within a half-mile in the park involving a sow with cubs, Sinnott said.
The city closed Rover's Run trail on Tuesday. Sinnott said the sow will be killed if she can be found, not an easy task in the 4,000-acre park. Motion-sensitive cameras have been installed on the trail. If the sow is caught, the cubs are
likely headed to a zoo.
"Most of the people who are attacked in town don't want the bear killed. They recognize she is a mom defending her cubs." Sinnott said. "We just can't let her live there because she will attack again."
The city's wildlife problem isn't limited to bears.
Mike Vogel, a 51-year-old insurance agent, was stomped by a moose in 2003 on a popular city trail. A year later, a moose charged at him near the same location, so
the 14-year resident of Anchorage shot and killed it.
"We need to kill some of these bears and we need to kill some of these moose," he said.
Vogel accuses Fish and Game of catering to "bunny huggers."
"I think the pecking order needs to be re-established with humans on top," he said. "What other city in the world has pernicious wildlife running around in its city parks?"
WORLD
U.S., Russian relations strained
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Russia is showing signs of returning to its authoritarian past and its invasion of Georgia will require the U.S. to re-evaluate the strategic relationship between the superpowers, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
Joining in the hard-line rhetoric, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of failing to honor a promise to withdraw troops quickly from Georgia under terms of a cease-fire he signed Saturday.
Shadows of the Cold War emerged as the Bush administration struggled for the appropriate response to Russia's aggression against its smaller U.S.-backed neighbor, which Moscow ruled for most of the two centuries before the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
"I hope this time he'll keep his word," Rice said after Medvedev announced the withdrawal would begin Monday.
"I think that there is a real concern that Russia has turned the
corner here and is headed back toward its past rather than toward its future, and my hope is that we will see actions in the weeks and months to come that provide us some reassurance," Gates said.
"Russia currently is not in compliance with that cease-fire," Rice said. "I don't have an explanation because I would think that when the Russian president says that a signed cease-fire accord will mean the withdrawal of Russian forces, that Russian forces would then withdraw. They did not. However, yet again, the Russian president has given his word, and this time, I hope he'll honor it."
Rice said Medvedev had pledged that when Georgia's president signed the cease-fire, Russian forces would begin to withdraw. But that did not happen.
"We obviously are going to have to re-evaluate the direction of the strategic relationship with Russia going forward, and again, that depends to a considerable extent on their behavior from this point forward."
Gates said that Vladimir Putin, the former Russian president who
shifted to prime minister when Medvedev took over this year, "clearly, as far as I'm concerned, has the upper hand right now" over Medvedev.
"I think we had seen them more as partners. And there had been a lot of signals from Putin that he was going to allow power to flow, to stay with the president, that Medvedev would be in charge, would be the person responsible for leading Russia going forward. The steps he's taken in the transition from president to prime minister in recent weeks, and now, certainly, in Georgia, at least in my opinion, bespeak more of Putin having his hand on the steering wheel than anybody else." Gates said.
"This looks frankly to me more like decisions made by the prime minister than by the president," he added.
Fighting broke out after Georgia launched a massive barrage Aug. 7 to try to take control of the separatist province of South Ossetia. The Russian army quickly overwhelmed Georgias' forces and drove deep into the country, raising tears of a long-term Russian occupation.
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