Blair Bobier

Related Programs:
New America in California, Political Reform Program

Blair Bobier is the Deputy Director of the Political Reform at New America Foundation. Mr. Bobier is based in the Bay Area and works to promote and educate about electoral reforms designed to empower voters and create a more diverse, representative and accountable government.

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 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.

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