HOUGHTON -- Jocelyn Benson -- author, law professor and candidate for Michigan Secretary of State in 2010 -- will "engage voters" this evening, Wednesday, June 3, about the role of Secretary of State in ensuring "fairness, access to government, and integrity in the electoral process." Her visit is part of a public discussion hosted by the Houghton County Democratic Party in a forum following the regular monthly membership meeting in the conference room of the Super 8 Motel in Houghton.
The Houghton County Dems plan to welcome Benson with a potluck dinner at 6 p.m. at the Super 8, Houghton. A brief membership meeting at 7 p.m. will be followed at 7:30 p.m. by Benson. The public is welcome to participate.
Benson, a professor of law at Wayne State University, portrays Secretaries of State as "guardians of democracy" in her book Democracy and the Secretary of State, to be published this year.
The book is a study of best practices used by 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," Benson said in a recent interview. "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," she said.
Benson's dedication to electoral reform started in Montgomery, Alabama, when she worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center as an investigative journalist studying white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations.
Benson became a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University. 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.
For more information visit the Houghton County Democrats' Web site.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment