ACLU Announces 4th Annual Patriot Award

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

ACLU Announces 4^th Annual Patriot Award

The North Coast’s local Redwood Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union announces the winners of the 4^th Annual Patriot Award to be Carolyn Crnich, Humboldt County’s Clerk and Recorder, and the members of the group she chairs, the Election Advisory Committee.

“We are proud to recognize the work of Carolyn and her committee on behalf of the voters of Humboldt County,” said Redwood ACLU chair Christina Allbright. “Thanks to them we have avoided the mistakes other counties made with the blanket implementation of untrustworthy electronic voting systems. The new Humboldt Transparency Project makes the vote-counting process open and independently verifiable, a great example the rest of the country should learn from.”

Crnich and members of the EAC will be recognized for their work at the Patriot Award Gala for the Redwood ACLU, to be held on Saturday, October 27^th at 6:00 p.m. at the Red Lion Hotel in Eureka. The gathering also serves as the Annual Meeting for the Redwood Chapter, where new and returning Boardmembers will be elected, amendments to the bylaws considered and ideas to advance civil liberties on the North Coast will be forwarded for the coming year.

“The fight for civil liberties in redwood country faced new challenges this year, not to mention the return of mass police surveillance of public areas as Arcata is now considering,” said Redwood ACLU vice chair Greg Allen. “I’m looking forward to another strong turnout of the local membership, not only so we can celebrate our accomplishments but also set new goals to bring Humboldt and surrounding counties into the kind of legal and social environment of freedom that we should expect by now, seven years into the 21^st Century.”

The local ACLU is also proud to announce the distribution of the first issue of its brand-new newsletter, the Redwood Libertine, which is set to come out quarterly. To find out more, call the Redwood ACLU hotline at 215-5385, or visit the Redwood Civil Liberties Blog at redwoodaclu.blogspot.com.

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