Just got this in email …

Inaccurate voting lists, uncounted provisional ballots, electronic voting machines that jam without a paper trail – all these and more have eroded voter confidence in the competence and fairness of America’s electoral process. Those problems are compounded by partisan Secretaries of State who conduct the elections, campaign officials with ties to companies providing voting machines, and claims that U.S. Attorneys were dismissed for failing to pursue alleged electoral fraud. A decade ago, it would have been laughable to ask if America’s elections were conducted as professionally and impartially as Mexico’s. Today, it is no laughing matter; indeed, the answer is that Mexico has a more independent, impartial, and professional system.

American University’s Center for Democracy and Election Management (CDEM) would like to invite you to attend the conference “Change the Way America Runs Its Elections,”at the National Press Club on June 13, 2007 from 9 am-1 pm. The conference will analyze the problems with the current system of electoral administration and offer new proposals for an independent, nonpartisan election commission.

Conference participants include Representative Susan Davis, who recently introduced a bill prohibiting election officials from participating in campaigns; two members of the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform, Susan Molinari, former Member of Congress, and Sharon Priest, former Secretary of State of Arkansas; Jean-Pierre Kingsley, President of IFES and former head of Elections Canada; Kevin Kennedy, Executive Director of the Wisconsin State Elections Board; Jamin Raskin, Maryland State Senator, and Mary Margaret Oliver, Member of the Georgia General Assembly.

For more information: http://www.american.edu/ia/cdem/emails/07_0604.htm.