What: Houseparties across CA to improve our democratic process
When: Saturday June 11, 2005 ; 1:00pm to 3:00pm (PST)
Where: At houses all across California. Hopefully at your house too!
Why: Because it's time to make our democracy better!
Who: Sponsored by Californians for Electoral Reform, but successful because of you!

FEATURED GUEST - Rob Richie, Executive Director, FairVote (Center for Voting and Democracy)

Sign-up at: http://www.partyhostcenter.com/fullrepresentation or email houseparties@cfer.org.

We need people to host a houseparty. It's easy and fun and we'll help you every step of the way.

Who among us is not concerned with how well (or poorly) our democracy is functioning. We have spoiler elections, unbelievably negative campaigns, major problems at polling places and in the vote counting process, and almost completely uncompetitive general elections for most offices. In every legislative district, up to half of the population goes without representation from someone who shares their views. We have low voter turnout and an electorate ready to throw their hands in the air. What can be done?

What must be done is to raise awareness about the specific problems with our electoral systems and to educate ourselves and the public about the best solutions to these problems. There really are better ways to run a democracy, and we need to open up the debate and build a movement to change our systems.

Our houseparty program is the first step towards an informed and active public, working to fix our democracy.

What are houseparties? How will this work?

A houseparty is a simple gathering in your home in which you invite a bunch of your friends and neighbors and then discuss important issues. In this case, we'll be discussing our electoral systems and how we fix them.

You can invite anywhere from a couple of people to 50 or more, and we'll help you every step of the way to make your party a success. You don't need to provide lots of food or drink to have a successful party, and we'll provide you with an agenda, materials like flyers and videos, and we will host a conference call with a leading expert which you can dial-in to. Our featured guest for June 11th will be Rob Richie, Executive Director of FairVote (Center for Voting and Democracy). Rob is a recognized national leader in the areas of electoral reform and election reform and will discuss the state of American democracy and FairVote's reform efforts.

How do I participate?

Why not host a houseparty for democracy?

You can sign-up at: www.partyhostcenter.com/fullrepresentation to set up your party and immediately be able to invite friends, etc. We'll give you a personal website for your party, keep track of RSVPs, and more. Sign up now, or email houseparties@cfer.org if you have questions. You can also contact Rob Dickinson at the phone numbers below.

If you can't host, please attend

So please - reserve the date (June 11) and plan to either host a party or attend one of the parties which we will have. Also, please help us get the word out about these parties - invite a bunch of your friends to participate and spread the word to your email lists.

Who is sponsoring this program?

Californians for Electoral Reform (CfER), a statewide non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to better electoral systems, is organizing this program. CfER has been around since 1993 and has been involved in most of the successful efforts to put in place better voting systems in California.

We have chapters in Alameda County, El Dorado County, Los Angeles area, Santa Monica, Marin County, Sonoma County, Monterey County, Sacramento County, San Diego area, San Francisco County, Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, San Joaquin Valley.

To learn more, see www.cfer.org or email me at robd@smc4er.org.

Rob Dickinson
Executive Vice President, Californians for Electoral Reform
robd@smc4er.org
650-544-5925 (cell)
650-365-6025 (h)