FairVote Takes on New Staff

Released May 17, 2006

TAKOMA PARK, MD. FairVote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan election reform group dedicated to issues such as instant runoff voting, proportional voting, Electoral College reform and fair elections administration, has recently brought on new key staff.

Bill Shein
Bill Shein comes to FairVote from Massachusetts, where he was a regular columnist for The Berkshire Eagle, the biggest newspaper in the western part of the state. Shein won the National Press Club Award for Humor in 2005. He was the founder and president of the pro-voter participation organization Yes I Will and a 1990 graduate of Tufts University.

Shein will lead FairVote's Presidential Elections Reform Program, which released a ground-breaking report this year entitled Presidential Elections Inequality. The report illustrated the dysfunctional presidential elections cretaed by our current Electoral College system. FairVote also promotes the National Popular Vote campaign, which weeks states to join together to to ensure that the Electoral College winner is also thenational popular vote winner. More at www.fairvote.org/presidential


Rachel Lewis
Rachel Lewis, a Virginia native and graduate of William and Mary College, joins FairVote as Director of Outreach, after working as a legislative aide in Congress. Lewis will spearhead FairVote's new IRV-Victory initiativeor instant runoff voting (IRV), which seeks to garner major endorsements for this majority voting method, and raise funds that can directly impact campaigns for reform on the ground. More at www.fairvote.org/victoryfund


Christina Bernard
Christina Bernard joins FairVote as Development Associate after spending three years in Geneva, Switzerland, as a Technical Officer at the World Health Organization. At WHO, she assisted the Burden of Disease team with its estimates of worldwide mortality and disability due to more than 100 causes and served as an editorial assistant. Christina also worked with the Sierra Club, and received a B.A. in Government from Harvard University in 2001.


FairVote staff includes executive director Rob Richie, program director David Moon, and communications director Ryan O'Donnell. Board members include chairman John B. Anderson, vice-chairman Edward Hailes, officers Cynthia Terrell and William Redpath, and Nikolas Bowie, Erin Bowser, Antonio Gonzalez, Hendrik Hertzberg, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Malia Lazu, Laura Liswood, Pete Martineau, Nina Moseley, Clay Mulford, Krist Novoselic, Jamin Raskin, William Raspberry, Ken Ritchie, Rashad Robinson, Katherine Spillar and David Wilner.

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To seek comment, contact Ryan O'Donnell at:(301) 270-4616 or ryan@fairvote.org

FairVote is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that studies the impact of electoral rules and systems on turnout, representation and electoral competition. Its chair is John B. Anderson, former Congressman and presidential candidate.