National Association of Counties * Washington, D.C.            Vol. 31, No. 15 * August 9, 1999

---

Previous story | Table of Contents | Next story

Web site debuts offering government-related resources
GovSpot, at http://www.govspot.com, a resource center for government information, recently debuted on the Web.
"There’s a wealth of wonderful, yet often hard to find government resources on the Web, and GovSpot leads you directly to the best and most useful," said Lauren Zollinger, managing editor.
The site includes links to NACo and county Web pages. To find out if your county is listed, just click on "local government" and then click on your state. Counties are listed on the next page. If your county is not listed, you can let GovSpot know about it.

Urban Institute welfare reform report is on the Internet
Nearly three years after the enactment of federal welfare reform, the rolls have fallen dramatically and most welfare recipients are working. The overlap of two vulnerable groups — those just leaving welfare and the working poor — has triggered new efforts to address the challenges facing all low-income families, not just those fresh off the welfare rolls.
A new study from the Urban Institute, at http://www.urban.org/, offers a national picture of welfare "graduates" and how they fared in 1997, shortly after enactment of the 1996 federal welfare law.

Washington county creates voter’s guide online at low cost
The Mason County (Wash.) On-Line Voter’s Guide, at http://auditor.co.mason.wa.us, makes its debut Aug. 21, three weeks before the fall primary election there, according to The Olympian newspaper.
Sending a pamphlet to the county’s roughly 30,000 registered voters could have cost between $5,000 and $7,000 each election. The county pays about $50 per month to maintain the existing Mason County Auditor’s page.
The newspaper pointed out that it’s too soon to know how much use the site will get, but county election results were checked on the auditor’s Web site more than 1,000 times during the 1998 general election in November.

Voting via the Internet
Internet poll site testing was experimented with during a special election in May in Cowlitz County, Wash. VoteHere.net, a supplier of secure Internet voting services based in Kirkland, Wash., offered its services free of charge to give voters the opportunity to test Internet voting technology while voting on a library bond issue.
Seventy-seven percent of the voters particpating in a test at the poll site voted "yes" when asked if they would like to use the Internet to vote. Students at Woodland High School in Cowlitz County also conducted class officer elections on the Internet. After the "polls" closed at 2:45 p.m., results were announced before school adjourned at 3 p.m.
To find out more about Internet voting, visit the VoteHere.net site at www.votehere.net.

(Web Watch is compiled by Mary Ann Barton, senior staff writer. Got some news? Send it to mbarton@naco.org.)