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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2009

Contact: Dorothy Johnson
906-495-1190

CHIPPEWA COUNTY DEMS TO HOST JOCELYN BENSON

Jocelyn Benson, candidate for Michigan Secretary of State, will be in Sault Ste. Marie on Saturday May 23rd to "engage voters" in a discussion of the Secretary of State's role to ensure "fairness, access to government, and integrity in the electoral process."

"Michigan has been a leader in electoral reforms in the past, as with voters registering when they get driver's licenses, and we need to regain that position as an innovative leader," Benson said in a recent interview. "Michigan needs to look at more ways to make voter participation easier, including Saturday voting and making it simpler to receive absentee ballots."

In the public forum, May 23rd at 10:00 am at the Country Kitchen Restaurant, Benson, a professor of Law at Wayne State University, will begin what she describes as a "collaborative effort to make the office of Secretary of State more responsive to the voters of Michigan."

The gathering will be hosted by the Chippewa County Democratic Party.

"This is a public meeting," emphasizes Chippewa County Democratic Chair, Dorothy Johnson. "Everyone is encouraged to come and hear Jocelyn Benson's ideas."

Benson's expertise in electoral reform is deep. She describes Secretaries of State as "guardians of democracy."

In addition to her faculty position at Wayne State, Benson is a member of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Election Law and founder of the Richard Austin Center on Election Law and Administration, which works with local election administrators to promote innovations and improve the election administration process in Michigan.

Her dedication to electoral reform began when she lived in Montgomery, Alabama, and worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center as an investigative journalist, researching white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations.

She went on to become a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University in the U.K. She received her law degree from Harvard University, where she became the Voting Rights Policy Coordinator of the Harvard Civil Rights Project and worked on the passage of the federal Help America Vote Act.

In addition to her teaching, Benson developed the first nationwide Election Protection program for the Democratic National Committee and, in 2007 and 2008, developed and supervised two statewide nonpartisan election protection efforts in Michigan. She has been called to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, where she called on Secretary Land to ban the use of foreclosure lists to challenge voters' eligibility on Election Day and is a frequent commentator on voting rights and election law on several local news and radio broadcasts.

Her book, Democracy and the Secretary of State, to be published this year is a study of the best practices of Secretaries of States across the country and seeks to inform voters about how Secretaries of State from either side of the political spectrum can work to advance democracy and election reform.

"My goal as Secretary of State is to promote access and accountability and advocate for a responsive government."

A "Dutch treat" breakfast will be available to those attending the meeting. Again everyone is invited to join the meeting with Jocelyn Benson. For more information contact Dorothy Johnson at 906-495-1190 or email at chair@chippewadems.com.