5/19/03

Diane B. Clifton, 334/844-5117

AUBURN HOSTING NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ELECTIONS

AUBURN -- Auburn University is hosting a national workshop to train election and voter registration officials Monday (May 19) through Friday (May 23) at the AU Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.

The professional education program was established through a partnership between Auburn's Master of Public Administration faculty and The Election Center, an international organization of local and state election officials.

Through the program AU faculty have trained more than 800 election officials at various sites throughout the United States. This is the first time the officials have come to Auburn for training.

While the program has been in existence since 1994, it took on special significance as the nation struggled to recover from the election problems of 2000.

The Election Center and Auburn faculty are now helping states develop plans to implement the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center and a nationally recognized expert on elections, will be one of the instructors this week.

During the aftermath of Election 2000, Lewis appeared on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and was a regular on C-SPAN, representing the nation's elections administrators.

The Election Center's purpose is to promote, preserve and improve democracy.

Its members are government employees whose profession is to serve in voter registration and elections administration, i.e., voter registrars, elections supervisors, elections directors, city clerk/city secretary, county clerk, county recorder, state election director and secretary of state for each of the individual states, territories and the District of Columbia.

may03:AU-elections

CONTACT: Robert Montjoy, 334-844-5700.