Mark Your Calendars: West Mesa AAUW Election Reform Forum Set for Early November

Election Reform Forum
First Unitarian Church, Carlisle & Comanche, ABQ
Saturday, November 12 at 1:00 PM

Moderator:  Sharon Booth, President West Mesa AAUW
Refreshments follow the panel discussion.

Panelists will include Dr. Pat Leahan, Dr. Sonja Elison, Dr. Kim Kirpatrick, NM Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino and Lowell Finley, Esq.

More on panelists:

Panel will include:

Kim Kirkpatrick has lived in Las Vegas, New Mexico for forty years, thirty of which he taught Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science at New Mexico Highlands University. He serves on the steering committee of Verified Voting of New Mexico, and has participated in several public discussions of security issues raised by the use of voting machines.

Patricia Leahan lives near Las Vegas, New Mexico.  She is the Founder and Director of the Las Vegas NM Peace & Justice Center. Pat has taught at the university level for 17 years in social work and behavioral sciences, and although her primary work is now full-time volunteer community organizing, she still teaches select classes at New Mexico Highlands University. Her work at the Peace & Justice Center encompasses a wide range of social justice issues, including election reform. It was Pat's passion for justice that led to her interest in voting rights. She is a founding member of VerifiedVotingNM (VVNM.org), serves on their steering committee, and works closely with United Voters of New Mexico (UVoteNM.org). She is also an active member of the VoterActionNM Team (VoterAction.org). Pat has helped organize research, educational forums and community-based actions around the voting machine issue in New Mexico since 2003.

State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino represents Bernalillo County District 12. Recently retired, his career was spent working as a social worker, social welfare program administrator, human services and human resource management professor, community organizer and social services planner. His interests broadened over the years from an initial focus on mental health and children’s protective services to work on child and family advocacy, substance abuse, positive youth development and early childhood programming. He has a BA in Latin American Studies from UNM and a Masters in Social Work from Tulane. He writes regular newspaper columns on social issues for the Santa Fe Reporter and on political issues for the Weekly Alibi. He helped found a private adoption and foster care agency called La Familia and co-founded the Robert F. Kennedy Charter High School for which he serves as president of the governing board. He was instrumental in the passing of the 2005 Election Reform Bill, which provides a voter verifiable paper trail and automatic audit, and is currently serving on the Election Reform Task Force.

Sonja Elison, Ph.D. Albuquerque, New Mexico: Sonja has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill and has taught political science at Georgetown, American and Gonzaga Universities, before moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Since the 2004 recount effort Sonja has become a central figure in election reform within the state.

Lowell Finley, Esq. (not yet confirmed): Mr. Finley is an attorney from Berkeley, California, with over 20 years experience in election law. He is one of the few attorneys in the nation with experience litigating electronic voting issues, having successfully sued Diebold Election Systems, Inc. in a California qui tam action. Mr. Finley’s election experience also includes blocking newly-elected California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from soliciting or using special interest campaign contributions to repay illegal $4 million personal loan, helping to brief several cases on the redistricting of California congressional and state legislative districts before the California and United States Supreme Courts. He won a lawsuit giving Chinese-American candidates access to the ballot in San Francisco and successfully sued an Orange County, California candidate for hiring uniformed security guards to intimidate Hispanic voters at the polls in the November, 1988 election. Mr. Finley is a founding member, Past President (1992), California Political Attorneys Association.