October 19, 2004

Speaker Biographies

New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron was elected to a third term in November 2002, making history by becoming the first person ever elected to three four-year terms as New Mexico Secretary of State.  She is the highest-ranking elected Hispanic woman state official in the United States.  She currently serves on the Executive Board and as President for the National Association of Secretaries of State. Between her terms as Secretary of State, Vigil-Giron was a consultant for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems in Nicaragua, Equatorial Guinea, and the Dominican Republic.  She also served as a member state delegate with the United Nations in Angola’s presidential elections.  In 1991, she was appointed Executive Director of the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women. 

Curtis B. Gans has been the director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate for the last 28 years.  As director of the Committee, Gans is an acknowledged expert on voter turnout and participation and has become a primary source of information for most newspapers, wire services, news magazines and columnists.  His own writings have appeared in a number of major publications, including the United Press International, the Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times Book Review. He has also appeared on various news and talk shows, including Today, Good Morning America, All Things Considered, and PBS’ NewsHour. Previously, he managed a number of political campaigns, including Senator Eugene J. McCarthy’s presidential campaign.  A former member of the Democratic National Policy Council, he also served as a consultant to the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars and the National Committee for an Effective Congress. Mr. Gans served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.

John C. Fortier is a research fellow at the America Enterprise Institute.  He is executive director of the Continuity of Government Commission and was project manager of the Transition to Governing Project.  He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Delaware, Boston College, and Harvard University.  He is the author of numerous scholarly and popular articles and was the editor of the third edition of After the People Vote:  A Guide to the Electoral College (AEI 2004).  Most recently, he coauthored “Presidential Succession and Presidential Leaders,” Catholic University Law Review (Fall 2004); “The Absentee Ballot and the Secret Ballot: Challenges for Election Reform,” University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform (Spring 2003); and “President Bush: Legislative Strategist,” in The Bush Presidency (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.  He is a frequent radio and television commentator on the presidency, Congress, and elections. 

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