Tova Wang to discuss obstacles to student voting Wednesday

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

Nationally known election-reform expert Tova Wang will discuss obstacles to student voting in the upcoming election during a Sept. 24 forum at Rice.

Wang is one of three presenters for “Democracy, Disenfranchisement and November 2008” — a presentation Rice is hosting in a belated celebration of Constitution Day (Sept. 17). The  program will begin at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Rice Memorial Center’s Farnsworth Pavilion.

Wang is vice president of research for Common Cause, a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1970 by John Gardner as a vehicle for citizens to make their voices heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest.

Wang focuses on voting rights, campaign finance and media reform and works on other issues related to civil rights and liberties as well. She was executive director of The Century Foundation’s Post-2004 Election Reform Working Group, comprised of many of the most pre-eminent election law scholars in the country. In 2001 she was staff person to the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. She wrote the report on voter fraud and voter intimidation for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in 2006.

In addition to Wang’s lecture on “November Surprise: Obstacles to Student Voting in 2008?” the Constitution Day forum will include presentations by two Rice faculty members.

Chandler Davidson, the Radoslav A. Tsanoff Professor Emeritus of Public Affairs and Sociology, will present “Vote Caging from the 1950s to the 21st Century.” He is nationally renowned as a leading expert on minority voting rights and has been called upon by Congress on many occasions to testify on the subject.

Dan Wallach, associate professor of computer science and in electrical and computer engineering, will discuss ”Adventures in Electronic Voting Research.” Wallach is one of the nation’s leading e-voting security experts and associate director of the federally funded $7.5 million Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable and Transparent Elections (ACCURATE).

Bob Stein, the Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science, will serve as moderator for the forum. Former dean of the School of Social Sciences, Stein is a leading scholar on urban and Texas politics and has been a featured political analyst on local and national media for 25 years.

Constitution Day commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.