Reply #3: MA: Bonifaz: AlterNet Interview

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Answering the S.O.S. for Election Reform
http://www.alternet.org/story/31946/

By Jan Frel, AlterNet. Posted February 9, 2006.

The coming 2006 elections offer activists and political donors who want election reform the opportunity to support at least two secretary of state candidates who have bold and pro-democratic positions on voting rights and voting machines: John Bonifaz in Massachusetts, Mark Ritchie in Minnesota. If elected they would join Bill Bradbury of Oregon and Deborah L. Markowitz of Vermont, two standing secretaries of state widely considered to be leaders in progressive election reforms.

John Bonifaz is a voting rights attorney and founder of the National Voting Rights Institute, which he founded in 1994 in Boston. Bonifaz has also worked for public funding of elections He was a leader in the push for Ohio's recount effort starting on No. 3, 2004. Bonifaz, with his father, also works at a private law firm that handles international environmental and human rights cases.

Mark Ritchie has been involved in Minnesota politics for the past 20 years. He is a founder of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and has served as its director since 1986. During the 2004 elections he helped create and lead the November 2nd campaign, a coalition of over 1,000 organizations and activist groups that worked to register five million new voters and turn out 10 million on Election Day.

Bonifaz is running for the Democratic Party nomination against the incumbent office holder, and Ritchie is running for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nomination to face the Republican incumbent in the general election. AlterNet spoke with the two candidates to learn more about why they decided to run.