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Blair Bobier was the Deputy Director of the Political Reform Program at New America Foundation. That program, which ceased operations on May 31, 2010, sought to develop the best opportunities for reform, educate opinion leaders and the public about electoral alternatives, and encourage the formation of a broad-based coalition.

Mr. Bobier is a lawyer with a long history as an educator and advocate of electoral reform. In Oregon, he successfully lobbied to ease the state’s restrictive ballot access laws; served as the primary citizen sponsor of Instant Runoff Voting legislation in several sessions of the Oregon legislature; and drafted an innovative statewide ballot initiative to establish proportional representation elections. Mr. Bobier has also initiated litigation to challenge restricted political debates in Oregon and to close loopholes in Maine’s Clean Election Act. He has testified before the Hawaii legislature and numerous charter review commissions, and was instrumental in initiating the first statewide recount of presidential ballots in the history of the United States.

Mr. Bobier served as an adjunct faculty member of the political science department at Western Oregon University and has written widely on election reform. He is a contributing author of the book Counting Votes: Lessons from the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida and has been published in a variety of publications including the San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Oregonian. He has lectured at college campuses across the country and has appeared on National Public Radio and many other radio, television, satellite and internet broadcasts. Mr. Bobier, an award-winning environmental activist, earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Maryland and graduated with honors from the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.