Robert Richie - Executive Director
An expert on international and domestic elections and electoral reform,
Rob Richie has directed FairVote since its founding in 1992. Among his
activities at FairVote, Richie has:* been a guest on many radio and television programs, including C-SPAN, NBC News, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NPR's "Talk of the Nation", "All things Considered" and "Fresh Air" and been a frequent source for print, radio and television journalists;
* published commentary in such publications as New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Roll Call, Nation, National Civic Review, Boston Review, Christian Science Monitor and Legal Times;
* co-authored two books, Every Vote Equal (2006) and Whose Votes Count (2001) and had his writings appear in seven other books;
* Spoken to scores of organizations, including at the annual conventions of the American Political Science Association, National Association of Counties, National Association of Secretaries of state, Unitarian Universalists and National Conference of State Legislatures and to the Voting Section of the U. S. Department of Justice, the Lincoln Day dinners of the Alaska Republican Party in Juneau and Anchorage and several groups of foreign dignitaries through the United States Information Agency;
* Worked with congressional and state legislative staff in writing numerous pieces of legislation;
* Testified in special sessions before charter commissions in cities in New York, Florida, Ohio, Texas and Michigan and before state legislative committees in Alaska, Vermont, Virginia and Washington;
* Helped organize eight well-attended national conferences on electoral system reform and worked with hundreds of state reformers supporting fair election methods;
* Toured New Zealand at the invitation of electoral reformers during a successful referendum campaign in that country in 1993 to adopt a proportional voting system; and
* edited FairVote's publications, such as its bi-annual analyses of congressional elections that have received prominent news coverage around the nation.
Born in Washington, D.C. in 1962, Richie graduated from Haverford College with a B.A. in philosophy in 1987. Before co-founding FairVote and becoming its director in 1992, he worked for three winning congressional campaigns in Washington state and for non-profit organizations in Washington and the District of Columbia. He is married to Cynthia Terrell and is the father of three children: Savanna, Lucas and Rebecca.
You can reach Rob Richie at: rr (AT) fairvote (DOT) org
See and Hear Rob Richie on the Air
Articles by Rob Richie
January 26th 2005Instant runoff would end spoiler effect in elections
San Jose Mercury News
IRV's success in San Francisco demonstrates its potential to create fairer elections on a national scale.December 22nd 2004
Calls for electoral standards mount
The Augusta Chronicle
An overview of several reforms to modernize and democratize our elections.December 21st 2004
America
TomPaine.com
Lots of ink and pixels have been spilled about the need for electoral reforms in this country. Both to standardize how we conduct elections and more importantly to restore voter confidence in the system. Yet argue election experts Richie and Hill soNovember 21st 2004
America: restoring democracy
TomPaine.com
It's time to modernize and democratize our elections; several reforms our open to us.November 15th 2004
Crying Reform, Not Wolf
Tom Paine
FairVote's David Moon and Rob Richie argue that the true culprit in the 2004 elections was not vote rigging, but the broken electoral system itself.[ Previous ] [ Next ]