Voice of the Voters 8pm ET this Wednesday 2/6/08: "Beating the Clock on Voting Reform in Virginia."

Virginia faces a Catch 22: Under current law, courts can't look at paper records to determine if there is cause for a recount, but the only way to show cause is to look at paper records. On top of this, legislative reform is a game of "Beat the Clock" because Virginia legislators are in session a mere 60 days.

On Wednesday's show, we learn whether Senator Mark Herring and the Verifiable Voting Coalition were successful in pushing audit and recount legislation though its latest hurdle, and whether the bill will pass before the clock runs out.

"It is critically important in a democracy that voters have confidence in the outcome of an election," said Senator Herring. "They need to know their votes have been counted correctly. In a tight race, even a small computer error could lead to a false outcome-and you won't know it if no one's checking. That's not fair to the candidates, and it's not fair to the voters."

Special Guests:

Virginia State Senator Mark Herring (D-Loudoun), sponsor of SB 292 ("Recount and Audit Bill") for Verifiable Elections in Virginia.

Dr. Alex Blakemore, co-founder of Virginia Verified Voting, has developed software and related computer systems professionally for 25 years. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Blakemore has lobbied for verifiable voting machines at the state and federal level for about 5 years.

Ivy Main, Esq., is the Policy Director of the New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia ("New Era"), a group composed primarily of lawyers who have worked with voters in past elections. Formed in 2004, New Era advocates for changes in the election laws to make them more responsive to the needs of voters. Ms. Main has also served as an election officer in Fairfax County, Virginia, and is a published writer and editor as well as a lawyer.

Jeremy Epstein runs the security group for a software company in Northern Virginia. He has served on two Virginia legislative panels, co-founded Virginia Verified Voting (a lobbying group for safer electronic voting), served as expert reviewer for the nationally recognized "Brennan Report", consulted to the Attorney General of Kentucky, and was the expert witness for voting technology in a case against the State of Maryland. He recently published an article in IEEE Computer on how electronic voting machines work. Jeremy has been involved in security research, development, and analysis for 20 years and is completing his Doctorate in Information Security from George Mason University.

As always, the incomparable John Gideon of Voters Unite will be on hand to share up-to-the-minute voting news and analysis you won't hear anywhere else.

Voice of the Voters, hosted by Mary Ann Gould, is an hour devoted to voting rights and election reform. Ultimately it is an exploration of Representative Democracy itself and the responsibilities of citizens and their elected representatives. It airs every Wednesday night at 8:00 PM ET on 1360 AM and on the Internet. (http://wnjc.duxpond.com/)

Dial-up Internet users: Please turn off all other programs in order to receive clearest broadcast.

Listeners can call in questions live at 856-227-1360 and submit questions in advance at the Voice of the Voters website.

Archived Voice of the Voters shows are available here. http://mysite.verizon.net/resq4lzq/cvi/id267.html