LAWRENCE NORDEN Norden is the director of the Voting Technology Project at the Brennan Center for Justice. The Brennan Center, Common Cause and Verified Voting recently issued a 50-state report card that grades each state on its preparedness for election system breakdowns. Norden said today: “There’s no question that in the last few years, election…

This week is “Break the Silence” Congo week, a global initiative led by students to raise awareness and provide support to the people of Congo. Events are planned in more than 30 countries and on 125 college campuses. The Congo has been virtually ignored during the campaign. It was raised in one debate by Tom…

JENNY FLANAGAN Flanagan is the executive director of Colorado Common Cause. She said today: “The State of Colorado should accept registration applications that contain all necessary identifying information, but lack a checkmark in a superfluous box. Currently, the state is treating these applications as ‘incomplete.’ If this policy goes unchanged, thousands of eligible Colorado voters…

AP is reporting this morning: “Testimony is on tap today by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. He’s to talk about the economic outlook before members of the House Budget Committee.” ROBERT AUERBACH Auerbach is professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He was an economist with the House Committee on Financial…

MAX FRAAD WOLFF Wolff is an instructor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University. He is a frequent contributor to Huffington Post, Asia Times and The Indypendent. He cites a disconnect between the economic crisis and the lack of meaningful discussion in the presidential race: “We are still talking tax…

TOVA WANG Wang is the vice president for research at Common Cause. She said today: “It is unfortunate that some would seek to distract us from the real work that needs to be done to ensure a fair election in which every eligible voter can cast a ballot and all the ballots are counted. While…

ROBERT RICHTER Richter is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and was political director for CBS News from 1965 to 1968. He notes that McCain has repeatedly invoked his record in the Vietnam War during the campaign, but that the effect of bomber pilots like McCain and of the Rolling Thunder bombing campaign has not been sufficiently…

NJOKI NJOROGE NJEHU SOREN AMBROSE Co-coordinator of Africa Jubilee South, based in Nairobi, Kenya, Njehu said today: “Governments are bailing out the banks — profit-making institutions — hundreds of billions were found instantly for them. Meanwhile, the debt crisis has continued to devastate life around the world. The G8 has promised to act but has…

ALEX KEYSSAR Keyssar is the Stirling Professor of History and Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the author of the book “he Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. He said today: “Once again we seem to be finding a pattern where allegations of fraud…

The media watch group FAIR has just launched the web page “Smearcasters: How Islamophobes spread fear, bigotry and misinformation.” ISABEL MacDONALD MacDonald is communications director with FAIR. She recently wrote the piece “The Anti-Muslim Smear Machine Strikes Again?” The piece states: “In the midst of remarkably cynical election-time mud-slinging, the ‘Obsession’ campaign is truly in…