October 1 Forum Targets Campaign Finance and Election Reform
Contact: Patrick Riggs, Chairman, Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee
Phone: 764-2365
On Saturday, October 1 a forum will be held at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka to present information on election and campaign finance reform. The meeting is being sponsored by the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee and the California Clean Money Campaign and speakers have been drawn from local and state-wide organizations.
Susan Lerner, the Executive Director of the California Clean Money Campaign, will coming to Eureka from Los Angeles to speak on why and how elections should be publicly financed. “The Clean Money system of full public financing of election campaigns is designed to break the link between large donations and public policy” said Lerner. “The goal of the system is to shift the emphasis in campaigns from who has collected the most money to who has the best ideas and background.” Assemblywoman Loni Hancock sponsored AB 583, which would bring about public financing of elections in California and Susan Lerner will talk about the bills progress and strategy for passage.
Alan Dechert of Sacramento is the President of the Open Voting Consortium and a master open source computer programmer. Open source software is in the public domain and Alan became well known when he published and open source Y2k toolkit that was widely used by businesses and governments around the world. The Open Voting Consortium favors using open source software to tabulate election results so that results can not be rigged. This concept is being studied by the California Secretary of State and is being advanced as legislation (SB 370). According to Dechert, California could be using open source election software as early as the 2008 presidential election and the software would be available free to other states.
Californians for Electoral Reform will be represented by their Vice President Bob Richard of Oakland, who will discuss electoral reform measures such as proportional representation and instant runoff voting. According to Richard “Instant runoff voting in single-seat elections, and proportional representation in multi-seat elections, will make elected officials more representative, reduce negative campaigning, and increase citizen participation in the political process.”
Eureka resident Yvonne Doble will present on behalf of the Humboldt Coalition of Community Rights about the Humboldt County Initiative they are promoting to
August 12, 2005