Meg Whitman Challenges Accusation That She Skipped Elections

California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman finally pressed back Monday against a Sept. 24 Sacramento Bee story that "found no evidence she had participated in elections for most of her adult life." The story set off a wave of negative coverage of the Republican former CEO of Ebay, who announced her candidacy on Sept. 22. Whitman registered to vote for the first time in 2002, at the age of 46, and her critics and opponents have run with the story that she "never voted her entire life."

But on Monday, Whitman's campaign finally made an effort to respond to the charges. In a letter sent to the Bee's editor and posted on Whitman's campaign site, Whitman's communication director said the campaign had found numerous discrepancies between the paper's reporting and the voting record. The letter pointed to several instances where there was no voting record to corroborate the Bee's story. Amy Chance, the Bee's editor, defended the story in a taped interview with conservative personality Hugh Hewitt, saying that the paper was careful to indicate when it simply did not find a voting record.
Despite questioning the story, Whitman openly conceeded that she had not voted as often as she should have. In an email to supporters she acknowledged that she had "missed too many elections." In a web video posted last week, Whitman also explained that she came to politics "much later in life" and called her lifelong absence from the voter's booth "inexcusable."

California: Whitman Questions Voting Story [CQ Politics]