December 7th ConferenceVoting in 2004: A Report to the Nation on America’s Election Process
More than 500 of you from Florida to Washington, from California to Vermont, braved the rain in Washington, D.C. on December 7, 2004 to participate in our day long election reform event, “Voting in 2004: A Report to the Nation on America’s Election Process.”
Click here for a summary of the conference.
The attendance and overwhelming response to this event made it clear that Americans care deeply about the integrity of our elections. Because of your passion, we were able to reach many Members of Congress who will be crucial to coming reform efforts.
The news media certainly took notice as the event was covered by The Associated Press, the Miami Herald, the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio. C-SPAN taped the event and aired it a number of times in the weeks that followed.
As we look ahead in the coming months, we will be working with our partner organizations, our state affiliates, and our members and activists to develop reform legislation and the strategies to successfully pass and implement that legislation. From there, we will work with you to educate the public and the media and to press lawmakers to enact the necessary reforms to make sure that every eligible voter has the opportunity to cast a ballot and have that ballot counted.
The Agenda
The agenda of the event is posted below.
Transcripts of the Event
By clicking on specific panels on the agenda posted below, you will be able to download a transcript of that panel. In addition, a few panelists have also made their published works available.
DVD of the Event
We also videotaped the entire event. DVDs of the whole event will be available for sale from Common Cause.
Voting in 2004:
A Report to the Nation on America's Election Process
Tuesday, December 7, 2004
Room SD-G50, Dirksen Senate Office Building
Click on the panel heading for a copy of the transcript.
For biographies of the panelists, click here.
Welcome and Opening Statements
8:30am - 9:00am
The Honorable Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)*
The Honorable Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
The Honorable Representative Bob Ney (R-OH)
The Honorable Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ)
Panel 1: Election Protection - An Overview
9:00am - 9:45am
Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director,
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Melanie L. Campbell, Exec. Director & CEO,
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Ralph Neas, President, People For the American Way
Panel 2: Voter Registration
10:00am - 11:15am
Jessie Allen, Associate Counsel,
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
Dr. Randy Brinson, Chairman, Redeem the Vote
Lillie Coney, Senior Policy Analyst, Electronic Privacy Information Center
Jehmu Greene, Executive Director, Rock the Vote
Penda Hair, Director, Voter Protection Project of American Families United
Panel 3: Provisional Ballots
11:15am - 12:15pm
Steve Carbo, Director of the Democracy Program, Demos
David Orr, Cook County Clerk, Cook County Illinois
Spencer Overton, Professor of Law,
The George Washington University School of Law
Panel 4: Machines
12:15pm - 1:15pm
David Dill, Founder, VerifiedVoting.org;
Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University
Dean Heller, Nevada Secretary of State
David Jefferson, Chair of the California Secretary of State's Technical Oversight Committee and member of the state's Voting Systems and Procedures Panel
Ted Selker, Associate Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Boxed Lunches Served
1:15pm - 1:45pm
Panel 5: Voter Suppression and Intimidation
1:45pm - 3:00pm
Brenda Wright, National Voting Rights Institute
Judith A. Browne, Senior Attorney, the Advancement Project
Heather Dawn Thompson, President, the Native American Bar Association of DC
Stephen Lopez, National Assoc. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials
Crystal Lander, Director of Campus Programs, the Feminist Majority Foundation
Hilary Shelton, Washington Bureau Director, NAACP
Panel 6: Polling Place Operations and Poll Workers
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Terry Ao, Staff Attorney, National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium
Alaina Beverly, Assistant Counsel,
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Doug Chapin, Director, Electionline.org
Robert Pastor, Director, Center for Democracy & Election Management, American University
Panel 7: Absentee Ballots
4:00pm - 5:00
Cecelie Counts, Director of Civil Rights, AFL-CIO
Leslie Reynolds, Executive Director, National Association of Secretaries of State
Avi Rubin, Professor of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University
Courtenay Strickland, Voting Rights Project Director, ACLU of Florida
*Unable to attend in person.