Sarah Burris wrote the following blog after attending the election reform panel at Netroots Nation 2009. Burris blogs at Future Majority and served as a reporter for Rock the Vote’s project Rock the Trail during the 2008 elections. She was a recipient of the Democracy for America scholarship to Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas in 2008.

One of the panels I attended at Netroots Nation was Repairing our Democracy: Voter Registration Modernization and other Solutions with speakers Secretary Debra Bowen California’s Secretary of State, Dean Logan the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk for Los Angeles County (the nation’s largest county), Jonah Goldman a national expert on voting and elections, and Justin Levitt counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. The panel was also moderated by Eric Marshall, campaign manager for the National Campaign for Fair Elections in the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Voting Rights Project.

Highly knowledgeable experts on the panel seemed to develop the consensus that the system is broken. (more…)

Posted in #Netroots, Election 2008, Election Reform, nn09 | Comments Off

Greetings to all of the election reformers in Pittsburgh at Netroots Nation 2009. I’m sorry we can’t be there with you like we were last year when I was on the grassroots video panel and we brought you vlogs Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi and even Bob Barr. But it sounds like, from monitoring the #nn09 hashtag on Twitter, that there’s lots of great stuff going on, including talk about election reform. Even California Secretary of State (and election reformer and veteran of the Why Tuesday? vlog) Debra Bowen spoke to NN09 (pictured above) We can’t wait to hear all about it. Be sure to send us updates in case were missing anything. But we’re watching from afar!

Photo of CA SoS Bowen via sterno74 on Flickr.

Posted in #NN08, #Netroots, nn09 | Comments Off

AUSTIN, TEXAS — I got into NN08 late last night to speak on the Creating Political Community Around Film panel, and to do some vlogging for NPR Sunday Soapbox.

Al Gore just got here. And P.S. — I have no idea why the picture is backwards. I tried to flip it.

* UPDATE 2:15PM CDT: Check out this picture of my panel mates, Wendy Cohen and Tracy Fleischman (not pictured: Jim Gilliam). The panel is in progress right now. Just showed the video of U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, the newest Why Tuesday? Correspondent.

Posted in #NN08, #Netroots, Texas | Comments Off

Will you be at Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas on Saturday? If so, come say hey at the “Creating Political Community Around Film” panel, I’ll be showing some Why Tuesday? vids and sharing our nonpartisan message: our voting system is broken and our elected leaders must do something to fix it.

Here’s the info about my panel.

Here’s the blurb from Netroots about Netroots:

Netroots Nation amplifies progressive voices by providing an online and in-person campus for exchanging ideas and learning how to be more effective in using technology to influence the public debate. Within that campus, we strengthen community, inspire action and serve as an incubator for progressive ideas that challenge the status quo and ultimately affect change in the public sphere.

Posted in #Netroots, Election Reform, Netroots Nation, Texas | Comments Off