FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2003 Contact: Tony
Lorenzen, 978-534-1373
508-344-3668,
greentbow@yahoo.com
Coalition
of Local Citizens’ Groups Join Forces to Educate Twin-Cities about Instant
Run-Off Voting
Fitchburg, MA
– A coalition of local citizens’ groups have joined forces in an effort to
educate voters in the Fitchburg-Leominster area about Instant Run-Off Voting (IRV). There are currently three bills before the Election Laws
joint committee on Beacon Hill (the chief bill being H2784) that seek to
implement IRV as the method of voting for constitutional offices and
federal representatives.
Leominster
resident Tony Lorenzen of the Green-Rainbow Party and Clinton resident Rich Zitola of
MassIRV have both testified before the Election Laws committee in favor of
the three bills. Both men are now among a group of local citizens working
to educate area voters about the bills and about IRV.
Zitola’s MassIRV,
and the local affiliate of the Green-Rainbow
party, will partner with Dovetail
Grassroots, the Massachusetts
Coalition for Healthy Communities and Common Cause Massachusetts in presenting the first in a series
of events and workshops to explain and demonstrate Instant Run-Off Voting to the people of central
Massachusetts.
IRV Education
Night will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 at the
Rollstone Church, located at 199 Main St. in Fitchburg. The program will
explain Instant Run-Off Voting, comparing and contrasting it with our
current “first past the post” voting system. Following the introduction to
IRV, a panel of activists involved with the IRV legislation in
Massachusetts will speak about why they support IRV and the pending
legislation. The panel will then field questions from the audience about
IRV. The panel will include Pam
Wilmot, Executive Director of Common Cause Massachusetts, Rich Zitola of MassIRV, and Jill Stein, M.D. of Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy
Communities. The program will end
with the audience participating in a mock election and Rich Zitola of
MassIRV leading a ballot count using the IRV method.
