President

Mike Shannon

Mike Shannon is another original thinker of this reform proposal.  Has written several articles.  Here is one of them.

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In the mid 1990s, Mike Shannon worked in Illinois politics and became disillusioned with the inability of the two-party system to solve, or even address or acknowledge, real problems. He observed gerrymandering - a process where legislators work together to draw their own legislative districts - as a key obstacle. He also observed how an entire opinion industry masquerading as "news" organizations acted as de facto subsidiaries of the two major political parties. In a protest campaign, he ran for the U.S. Congress in 2006 without accepting campaign donations. Later, he participated in 3rd party campaigns, where he encountered and experienced the major dilemma: voting for a 3rd party helps one's least-preferred candidate. From there, he investigated various voting systems, including Instant Runoff (Ranked Choice), Approval, and Score voting. Each was designed to solve for the dilemma, but each had its own shortcomings that perpetuate a two-party system that still favors extreme partisans. It occurred to Mr. Shannon that what he really wanted to do as a voter was to simply express disapproval of his least-preferred candidate(s), and none of those voting systems above allowed it without artificially inflating support of other candidates to game the system. That's when the right and option to vote negative was revealed to him.

Vice President

Tony Redfern

No one is truly powerless but everyone, who dares to shape a better world, can always use more power to do so.

Tony Redfern has been a Community Mediator since 1992. He taught Leadership & Peacemaking on three continents. He mediated many conflicts where there was a need for all the parties in the conflict to share power (power-with), as opposed to power-over. Generally, voting is a system that uses power-over; e.g. politically, a candidate with the most votes wins, not-with-standing any other added determination. So, how can a "power-with" be added to an already polarized voting system? Currently, all voters can vote yes, but none of the voters can vote no. Voting is not "for or against." Today, voting is "for or for." Voters do not have the power to vote no and, therefore, to truly vote as they wish. Instead of voting no, voters are forced to hold-their-nose and vote yes for a "lessor evil." Redfern asks, "Do you see the dilemma? Do you see the double-bind for the voter? Do you see the powerlessness? Why not give the voter the right to vote NO?" Power is shared when options increase; the powerless are empowered; and the integrity of the vote reflects the desires of the people.

Secretary

Sam Chang

Sam is our international ambassador.  He has attended numerous international democracy forums to explain the concept.  He was invited as a speaker at the 2017 World Forum for Democracy held in Strasbourg, France.  He has also attended international democracy forums in Italy(2018), Greece (2018), Poland(2018), Norway(2018), Finland(2018), Taiwan (2019),  Switzerland(2022), Greece(2022),  Mexico (2023), and Romania (2024).

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These efforts have led to numerous positive responses from reform-minded democracy activists in many different countries. In the United States, Sam has made presentations to to Citizens Advisory Commission on Elections in Santa Clara County, CA (August 2, 2016), and The League of Women Voters in Honolulu, HI (April 13, 2019). 

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