We're hiring a field organizer

Happy New Year! Please distribute widely!

The Midwest Democracy Center (www.midwestdemocracy.org) in 
partnership with the Center for Voting and Democracy 
(www.fairvote.org) is launching a one-year campaign to educate 
elected officials of local governments in Illinois about innovative 
election systems -- specifically instant runoff voting and cumulative 
voting rights in multi-member districts. The field organizer is a 
part-time position (up to 20 hours per week) that pays $1000 per 
month. No benefits. 

The organizer will have two main jobs. The first will be to make sure 
that the county board members of county boards that use multi-member 
districts (including DuPage, Will, McHenry and between 15-30 others 
across the state) are aware of a 2003 law (HB 138) that allows them 
to give cumulative voting rights to voters (where a voter may give 
all three of her votes to one candidate). This creates a more diverse 
county board as a political minority can elect one board member out 
of the three elected from a district. We hope that a few county 
boards, when educated about cumulative voting rights, will choose to 
give their voters this newly-won right to cast all their votes as 
they see fit. 

The second main job will be to make sure that the city council 
members of cities that use non-partisan elections know about the 
money-saving potential of instant runoff voting (as used in San 
Francisco, starting in 2004) to consolidate the February and April 
elections into one vote, by using ranked choices on the ballot. It is 
hoped that if the municipalities that would benefit by the ability to 
consolidate their local elections with instant runoff voting learn 
about the innovative system, they will help to pass a state law (HB 
3301) that would allow municipalities to implement the system and 
save the expense of holding two elections.

The position calls for a large amount of public speaking and a 
significant amount of travel. The ideal candidate will have excellent 
communication skills, flexibility, their own vehicle and will be a 
self-starter. The organizer need not work out of our Chicago office 
in River North. The Center does not discriminate based on any 
immutable characteristic. 

If interested, please email a note to Dan Johnson-Weinberger at 
midwestdemocracy@yahoo.com (please do not send any attachments with 
your email). 

Dan will send you a written assignment to complete by January 16th. 
There will be no initial interviews. Callback interviews may be 
conducted. The campaign is scheduled to begin February 1 and we 
expect a nine-month commitment. The schedule is flexible but does 
involve a lot of evening work (as that's when the local governments 
meet and the organizer will travel to the local government meetings 
and address the elected officials during the public comment period). 
Travel time will be considered work time and expenses will be 
reimbursed.

Familiarity with electoral reform and Illinois politics is preferred. 
There is no age preference and no need to live in Chicago.

Midwest Democracy Center
325 West Huron #304
Chicago, IL 60610
312.587.7060
http://www.midwestdemocracy.org