Brad Friedman

Brad Friedman is a US satirically self-described "election integrity muckraking journalist jerk," blogger, actor, radio broadcaster, director and software programmer. Friedman has a BFA from New York University's (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts.

Buffalo's independent newspaper The Beast describes him as "perhaps the most diligent and unassailable election integrity advocate in America."

He is the creator and publisher of The BRAD BLOG, which the Los Angeles Times has described as California's "most persistent blogger-watchdog on the dangers of voting technology".

"If you want to learn about the state of our election process, I urge you to visit BradBlog.com. Brad Friedman has worked doggedly on this issue, amassing tons of valuable news and information on this subject." - Catherine Crier, Crier Live, Court TV, July 11, 2006. . Friedman would later appear, along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., live on Crier's program, on July 20, 2006 to discuss concerns about voting systems to be used in that year's upcoming general election.

A November, 2008 interview by BuzzFlash.com describes Friedman as a "Champion of Fair Elections and Challenger of Election Theft," and notes "Brad has been unrelenting in documenting the details of the dark side of our voting system."

The Chicago Sun-Times' Beacon News profiled Friedman in April of 2008.

McClatchy-owned Kansas City Star cited Friedman's "rare" radio interview with Missouri Sec. of State Robin Carnahan in May of 2008, concerning the controversial issue of voter Photo ID restrictions at polling places in the state, as a bill to require it in Missouri was being debated in the state legislature. The paper describes Friedman as a "well-known voting machine critic and blogger".

The BRAD BLOG

Friedman's blog covers voting rights and election integrity issues in the USA, and a a number of other subjects related to media reform and political corruption from a progressive standpoint.

His blog site is generally critical of Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold Election Systems), ES&S, Sequoia Voting Systems and electronic voting in general.

Based on his advocacy at The BRAD BLOG and in other publications, he was invited to testify at the Election Assistance Commission's Voting Advocate Roundtable Discussion. Friedman is a noted advocate of a return to paper balloting and of the role of bloggers as journalists. he has been described in the New York Times as "perhaps the most dogged critic of electronic voting machine technology in the blogosphere".

Other work

His work as a freelance journalist has been published by Mother Jones, Editor & Publisher, Computerworld, Columbus Free Press, Salon.com, TruthOut.org, Harvard's Nieman Foundation of Journalism and Hustler, among others, and he and his work at The BRAD BLOG, are frequently cited as sources in other mainstream publications.

He is featured in numerous documentary films, interviewed as an investigative journalist, and expert in issues of election integrity and voting systems. Among the films in which he appears: Phil Donahue & Ellen Spiro's Body of War, David Earnhardt's Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections, Dorothy Fadiman's Stealing America: Vote by Vote and Patty Sharaf's Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story .

In July 2006, Hustler magazine featured an article in which Friedman discussed the alleged suicide of Raymond Lemme, an investigator tracking down claims of vote-rigging by Congressman Tom Feeney, as alleged by Florida software programmer Clint Curtis in a story Friedman broke in late 2004 and has covered in great detail ever since.

Friedman reported on suspicions that the 2008 New Hampshire Democratic primary was rigged. He has also extensively covered the case of Ann Coulter's voter fraud issues in Florida. In 2008 Friedman reported critically on the FBI investigation into the suspected involvement of Bruce Ivins in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

An exclusive interview Friedman conducted with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, just prior to the 2008 general election, was published in two parts; one part in Computerworld , noted Brunner's memorable thought upon reviewing the "awful" findings of the state's report on the security of electronic voting systems in Ohio ("I thought I was going to throw up"), and the other in Alternet quoting the Secretary as stating "we will be ready" for the 2008 election.

He is a frequent guest host on radio for syndicated progressive talkers such as Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, Peter B. Collins, The Young Turks and others.

As an actor, Friedman was the winner of multiple Joe Bob Briggs' Drive-In Academy Awards

Friedman contributed a chapter on Nevada's "illegally certified" electronic voting machines to Loser Take All, a collection of essays on America's voting system, published by Ig Publishing in 2008, as edited by NYU media professor, author and outspoken election integrity advocate Mark Crispin Miller. The investigative essay, titled "The Selling of the Touch-Screen 'Paper-Trail': From Nevada to the EAC" was co-authored with Michael Richardson, and described by Miller in the book's introduction as "the harrowing pre-history of the 2004 election in Nevada, whose voting system had long since been hijacked by Secretary of State Dean Heller".

Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich's "35 Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush" refers to several reports by Friedman in its published footnotes for Article XXIX, "Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965". Friedman was tapped by Kucinich as one of several experts who helped to compile two (Article 28, "Tampering with Free and Fair Elections" and Article 29, "Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965") of the 35 articles of impeachment as introduced in Congress in 2008.

External links

• The BRAD BLOG
• Brad Friedman's personal website