Reply #64: NORTHERN CALIFORNIA EVENT NOTICE

[GuvWurld]

June 24, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Voter Confidence Committee Presents Votergate the Movie

The Voter Confidence Committee (VCC) will present Votergate the Movie on Wednesday, June 29 at 6pm at the Redwood Peace and Justice Center at 1040 H St. in Arcata. Votergate documents the travels of Bev Harris and her efforts to shine light on the dark corporate secrets of our election system. This free screening will be followed by presentations and discussion of related election reform activities happening in Humboldt County, including:

--Discussion of the Voter Confidence Resolution
--PowerPoint presentation on preferential voting
--Introduction to publicly owned open voting systems
--Proposal of an Election Reform Task Force (Humboldt County) and Charter Review Commission (Eureka)

"The Voter Confidence Committee has opened several fronts in the election reform movement," says VCC Principal Dave Berman. The Arcata City Council will hold a hearing on the Voter Confidence Resolution at its July 6 meeting. Full text: http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/04/voter-confidence-resolution.html

VCC Principal Scott Menzies recently gave presentations on preferential voting at a Eureka Town Hall Forum and during the June 7 Eureka City Council meeting. "This next time I'm going to expand the topic a little bit," says Menzies. "I'm going to discuss both Instant Runoff Voting and Choice Voting. The only difference is that IRV is for single-seat races and Choice voting is for multi-seat races like the City Councils."

The VCC has also been actively lobbying the Elections Department and the Board of Supervisors. "We definitely say No Deal With Diebold!" says VCC Principal Mark Konkler. "The VCC supports publicly owned open voting systems like the one designed by Open Voting Consortium."

Other recent VCC activities included a trip to Sacramento to attend the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel hearing where Diebold ultimately endured a heavy battering by the public for its record on voting security. While at the Capitol, VCC members also lobbied Assemblymember Berg and Senator Chesbro on voter confidence issues.

The VCC hopes to see community members plug into any of the various projects.

For more information: www.voterconfidencecommittee.org; www.guvwurld.blogspot.com

Who: Voter Confidence Committee
What: Free screening of Votergate and discussion of local election reform efforts
Where: Redwood Peace and Justice Center, 1040 H St., Arcata
Why: Current election conditions ensure inconclusive outcomes
When: Wednesday, June 29, 6-8pm Humboldt Standard Time