T.J. is joined by two prominent election reform attorneys: Lawrence Lessig with Equal Citizens and Chad Peace with the Independent Voter Project. They discuss their latest reform lawsuits and projects, breaking down each case into its ‘elevator pitch’.

Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. He is also the founder of Equal Citizens, which recently launched Equal Votes, a legal fight against the winner-take-all method of allocating Electoral Votes in presidential elections.

Chad Peace is a nationally recognized leader in election law and voter rights. He serves as the attorney for the Independent Voter Project, and developed the voter outreach strategy for California’s successful nonpartisan primary initiative. Most recently, he authored the City of San Diego’s Measure K, and just Friday filed an Amicus Brief on behalf of Level the Playing Field in the lawsuit challenging the Commission on Presidential Debates.

IVN editor Jeff Powers interviewed District 3 Councilman Chris Ward on a the city's legalization of marijuana.

Daniel Norland joins host, T.J. O’Hara on this week’s episode. Dan is best known locally as a history teacher at a San Diego school, and nationally as the editor of Witnesses of the Unseen: Seven Years in Guantanamo, the story of two Algerians detained for seven years at Guantanamo, who wished to tell their story to America. The two discuss the Algerians story, the complex issue of human rights versus terrorism, and more.

Daniel Norland is a history teacher, mock trial coach, and global education coordinator at La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego. While at Boston legal firm WilmerHale, Dan began conducting interviews with Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir, who wished to tell their story to America - which was published in April of this year, in Witnesses of the Unseen: Seven Years in Guantanamo.

In a wide ranging interview with IVC President Chad Peace and IVN editor Jeff Powers, US Representative Scott Peters (D-Calif.) spoke on a number of subjects as he ended his August recess.

T.J. O’Hara is joined by author and attorney Jeff Rasley. Jeff performed a small Facebook experiment concerning civility. The two discuss this experiment, the post-election conversations that take place on social media, “silos of the like-minded,” and more.

Jeff Rasley is the author of ten books and numerous articles. His most recent book is “POLARIZED! The Case for Civility in the Time of Trump: An experiment in civil discourse on Facebook.” He graduated from University of Chicago, and received his JD at Indiana University Law School.

This week on A Civil Assessment we meet the award-winning election journalist Lulu Friesdat. T.J. and Lulu discuss her history reporting on elections, her documentary “Holler Back” about voters who were not voting in 2005, the annual tech conference DEF CON where hackers broke into election machines in under 2 hours, bi-partisan election security, the Wisconsin, Georgia and Florida recounts, and more. Lulu walks us through how hackers easily hacked a number of different election machines, a lot of which was made easier due to simple passwords (such as “ABCDEF”) and lack of encryption. She recommends voting via paper, in order to secure your vote!

Lulu Friesdat is an Emmy award-winning journalist whose many news assignments include producing election coverage for MSNBC, editing with the CBS Evening News and Good Morning America, and writing for Salon, and Alternet. She’s been reporting on problems with U.S. elections since 2008, when she received a Best Documentary award for directing her first feature-length documentary, Holler Back: [not]Voting in an American Town. A two-time recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award, she has been interviewed on radio and television shows including Writer’s Voice and Connect the Dots. Follow her on twitter @LuluFriesdat.

Read more about Elon Musk and Tesla here: https://ivn.us/2017/08/09/elon-musk-how-your-investment-made-his-empire/

Host T.J. is joined by Nick Troiano, executive director of The Centrist Project. The two discuss the latest endeavors of The Centrist Project, including projects in support of independent candidates across the nation, how independents could change the U.S.’s healthcare discussion, what an independent caucus would look like, and more. The Centrist Project has joined a coalition, including Represent.Us and the Independent Voter Project, to organize, educate and empower grassroots activists through the event Unrig the System (https://unrig.it), on August 5th in Denver, CO.

Nick Troiano, earned a Master’s degree in American Government from Georgetown University, and is currently a civic entrepreneur based in San Francisco, CA. He is the Executive Director of The Centrist Project, which aims to elect independent candidates to office in order to bridge the growing partisan divide. Nick worked for Change.org on Change Politics – a nonpartisan platform that empowers citizens to make informed decisions. In 2016, he was named to the "Forbes 30 Under 30" for Law & Policy.

In 2014, Nick ran for the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s 10th District. He drew national attention as the youngest candidate and most successful independent of the cycle, with over 22,000 votes. In 2012, Nick co-founded The Can Kicks Back campaign to advocate for bipartisan policies to reduce the national debt and was instrumental in the introduction of the INFORM Act to increase transparency in the federal budget.

T.J. O’Hara, IVN’s podcast host, is joined by David Walker. Dave served as the seventh U.S. Comptroller General, for the Clinton and Bush Administrations, as well as the head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Dave is currently running for Governor of Connecticut. The two discuss the nation’s fiscal responsibility, touching on issues like social security, healthcare, how much public debt we have as a percentage of the economy (78% and rising!), welfare, and the problems he sees in Connecticut.

Dave co-founded No Labels, and founded and lead the Comeback America Initiative (CAI) in order to engage his fellow citizens in the fight to restore fiscal sanity. He has over 20 years of private sector experience, and currently, serves on various boards and advisory groups, such as The Can Kicks Back and the Institute for Truth in Accounting.

Dave has won many international and domestic leadership awards and is a member of the international Accounting Hall of Fame. He has authored three books, is a frequent media commentator, and the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A.

Dave holds a B.S. in accounting from Jacksonville University, a Senior Management in Government Certificate in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and several honorary doctorate degrees. Dave currently resides in Bridgeport, CT.

If you're in the US, odds are good you'll be voting for a judge or six this November. It's hard, and _really_ different from electing a representative or executive.

So how the heck do you do it? How do you judge your potential judges? If you want to be a responsible citizen, you gotta give this one a listen.

ReConsider, by Xander Snyder and Erik Fogg, is a syndicate of IVN.us. Listen to more ReConsider Podcasts: www.reconsidermedia.com/podcast/, or on IVN at ivn.us/tag/ivn-podcast/.