Article: Philadelphia's Renaissance Radio: Voice of the Voters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Voice of the Voters

Airs on WNJC 1360AM, Philadelphia's Renaissance Radio Station and the Internet

THIS WEEK'S SPECIAL GUESTS:

Professor and author, Steven F. Freeman

Barry Kauffman, Executive Director of Common Cause/Pennsylvania

Marian K. Schneider, attorney

November 14, 2006

Contact information:

Mary Ann Gould

Coalition for Voting Integrity

SaveOurVote.com

email: votingintegrity@aol.com

(c) 215.588.8518

(h)215.357.5206

Doylestown - Did Pennsylvania get flipped?

Both major parties now say that vote flipping - candidate names changing during the voting process - did occur across the nation on Election Day. In Pennsylvania, the GOP officially filed a complaint with the Secretary of State on issues of vote flipping and other problems, going so far as to ask for the impoundment of machines in several counties. 18,000 votes that we know of were lost in Florida. And those are only the tip of the iceberg.

One week after the midterm elections, the Voice of the Voters will be asking what really happened on November 7. Media pundits said everything went well. Electronic voting experts and advocates say that's not the case. On Wednesday, November 15, find out why there is a difference of opinion.

With so much to talk about, this week's show will feature three special guests: (bios follow)

Dr. Steven F. Freeman, renowned election scholar, will discuss the value, vulnerabilities and real purpose of exit polls.

Barry Kauffman, Executive Director of Common Cause/Pennsylvania, will discuss the thousands of calls from all over PA reporting various problems with electronic voting machines.

Marian Schneider, lead attorney on a landmark Pennsylvania voting case that would halt the use of electronic voting machines that do not create a permanent physical record of each vote. The lawsuit, the most comprehensive yet filed against electronic voting in Pennsylvania, alleges that the Secretary of State's certification of such electronic voting machines violates the state's Election Code and the state's Constitution. Ms. Schneider will be discussing developments in the case.

As always, John Gideon, Executive Director of Voters Unite will give us a headstart on all the week's voting news before it hits the major media.

Voice of the Voters is an hour devoted to voting rights, election reform and voter-verified paper ballots. It airs every Wednesday night at 8:00 PM on 1360 AM and on the Internet. Listeners can call in questions live at 856-227-1360 and submit questions in advance at the SaveOurVote website.

Upcoming guests include:

11/22 Thanksgiving week will feature a special discussion of founding American principles, the role of citizens in a democracy and what we can do together to make a difference. The special guest will be Dr. Chuck Pennacchio, historian and former candidate for U.S. Senate plus a visit from "Paul Revere."

11/29 BEV HARRIS: Founder and Director of Black Box Voting. Harris has been referred to as "the godmother" of the election reform movement. (Boston Globe). Vanity Fair magazine credits her with founding the movement to reform electronic voting. Time Magazine calls her book, Black Box Voting, "the bible" of electronic voting.

WHAT: The Voice of the Voters

WHEN: Wednesday, 11/15, 8:00PM

WHERE: WNJC, 1360AM, Philadelphia's Renaissance Radio Station and everywhere on the Internet

Bios:

Steven F. Freeman holds a Ph.D. from MIT's Sloan School of Management and an M.S. in Social System Science from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Since 2000, he has held several academic positions at the University of Pennsylvania, where he currently serves as Visiting Scholar and a member of the teaching faculty of the Graduate Program of Organizational Dynamics in the School of Arts and Sciences. In addition to his regular courses, he teaches workshops for graduate students on research methods and survey design. He has also taught on the faculty at the Wharton School, and at the Universidad de San Andreas in Argentina and the Central American Institute of Business Administration (INCAE) in Costa Rica, where he has conducted management courses for private and public sector leaders and faculty workshops on research methods. He is the recipient of four national research awards for outstanding scholarship from the Academy of Management. More recently, his election research has won an award from Project Censored as one of the three most important "censored" stories of 2005. He is the author of, with Joel Bleifuss, Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen? Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count. (New York: Seven Stories Press 2006).

Dr. Freeman is also a principal in Election Integrity. On Election Day, November 7, 2006, Election Integrity conducted a professionally designed and implemented Election Verification Exit Poll. As far as we know, this was the only such effort ever undertaken in this country. Approximately 6,000 questionnaires were collected from 28 polling places from the western Philadelphia suburbs of Delaware, Montgomery and Chester counties, in the 6th and 7th PA U.S. Congressional Districts.

Barry Kauffman is Executive Director of the 10,000 member citizen lobbying organization, Common Cause/Pennsylvania, the Keystone State's leading good government advocacy organization. As Executive Director, he serves as the state organization's chief executive officer and is its principal lobbyist in Harrisburg.

Common Cause has been credited with creating the momentum necessary for passing numerous important government reform measures. Some of these include: The Public Officials Ethics Act, Lobbyist Disclosure and Regulation Act, Campaign Finance Disclosure Act; Sunset Act; Sunshine Act; Open Records Reforms; Whistleblower Act,; Judicial Discipline Constitutional Amendment; Tax Expenditures Act; Motor Voter Act; Independent Counsel Act; Internet Disclosure of Campaign Contributions; Internet Availability of Bills, Laws and Legislative Calendars; Statewide Uniform Voter Registration Act; and Help America Vote Act Implementation.

Common Cause/PA is currently working to restore the integrity of the legislative process and modernize the state's election laws. It is aggressively pursing campaign contribution limits and a redistricting system that advances voters' interests in competitive elections.

Kauffman is a regular commentator on the above issues in media throughout the state, and beyond. He is frequently called upon to speak to a wide variety of organizations about government reform issues.
Prior to joining Common Cause, Kauffman was a citizens' advocate in the Governor's Office working out of the Governor's Action Center. Kauffman served on Governor Rendell's Pennsylvania Elections Reform Task Force.

Kauffman received a B.A. in Political Science from Indiana University of PA, and an M.S. in Communications from Shippensburg State University. He is a native of Conestoga, Pennsylvania.

Marian K. Schneider, Berwyn, PA, has 19 years experience practicing law. Currently, she practices employment law on behalf of employees and litigates commercial disputes. In 2004, she trained more than 200 pollwatchers and was a member of the Kerry-Edwards Election Protection team on Election Day. In December 2005, she helped to organize a non-partisan election integrity group called the Chester County Coalition for Voting Integrity. The Coalition was instrumental in convincing the Board of Elections to acquire a paper ballot system with optical scan tabulation. Marian also serves on the Board of Directors of the Easttown Library Foundation and was formerly a member of the Tredyffrin-Easttown School Board.

Marian received her J.D. from the George Washington University in 1987 where she was a member of the Law Review. She earned her B.A. degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984.

Coalition for Voting Integrity