Voter Action: "Welcome John Bonifaz"

[eleny]

I just received Voter Action's latest newsletter in email:

Welcome John Bonifaz
May 8, 2007
Dear Voter Action Friends,

Please join me in welcoming John Bonifaz to our permanent team. We are honored to announce that John has accepted a long term position as Voter Action Legal Director. John has been acting as legal consultant to Voter Action during a transition that began in January when Voter action co-founder Lowell Finley assumed his new role as Assistant Secretary of State of California in charge of voting technology. John comes from his position as Senior Legal Fellow at Demos, a New York base national policy organization, in its Democracy Program. Voter Action looks forward to continuing an ongoing and productive collaboration with Demos on our shared goals for a meaningful democracy.

John's work to keep elections clean and free of corporate control has been nationally recognized for years. He was the founder of the National Voting Rights Institute and formerly served as the staff attorney for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Responsive Politics, a leading research authority on the influence of private money in federal elections. He is the co-author, with Jamin Raskin, of articles in the Yale Law & Policy Review and the Columbia Law Review, which set forth the constitutional basis for the Institute's affirmative litigation work. In 1999, in recognition of his ground breaking work with the National Voting Rights Institute, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded John with a prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
John will not only direct Voter Action's ongoing legal efforts around the country but will also assist Voter Action in the development of key programs such as our Watch the Vote Program and our state based citizen outreach and research activities. In addition, as new concerns such as meaningful election audits, electronic poll books and privatized voter registration databases present themselves as new barriers to voting, John will be here to help develop new strategies and oversight solutions for the future.

We know now that a functional democracy is one that requires constant citizen oversight and accountability. Voter Action remains fortunate in the quality and caliber of people involved in our ongoing efforts and this includes you. Together, through action and determination, we can create a strong democracy of, by and for the people.

With appreciation and Welcome again to John!


Yours truly,

Holly Jacobson
Co-director,
Voter Action
206 723 1941
www.voteraction.org

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. congrats to John and thanks to Voter Action!

Thank you very much Voter Action, for fighting the good fight and
helping the states.