Co-founder of VotersUnite! and good friend, John Gideon, died last night in Seattle after suddenly coming down with (what appears to have been) bacterial meningitis.
I haven't seen an obituary yet, but when one is written, it will show that he spent his life in service to this country, with the last few years as a central pivot point in the election integrity movement.
(BradBlog has a moving post about John up now; however, as John knew, I don't endorse, link to or otherwise traffic in Brad Friedman. So, you'll have to go find it yourself.)
Frankly, I am having a hard time getting much done today, as my thoughts constantly return to John, and the uncertain future of all things election-related. It's so true that "we don't know what we had until it's gone", but I'd like to think I appreciated John and his work quite a bit when he was still with us. However, to fill his shoes is going to be a big task; one that will take many of us to pitch in where we can.
I'd like to point something out and make a proposal. John was underappreciated, in my opinion. People who knew him probably knew him best through either his 7-days-a-week Daily Voting News which aggregated all news stories about voting technology for over five years. He also tirelessly worked to keep all of us honest; through intellectual inquiry for people like me, through watchdog-like activity and public records requests for election officials and by not pulling punches when it came to getting to the bottom of advocate positions and perspectives.
So, now the proposal: I think the best way to honor John Gideon would be to set up an award, scholarship or fellowship for under-appreciated election integrity work. There are too damn many ways for people who are at the forefront of their work to be recognized: MacArthur awards, Nobels, Fields, Turings, etc. What we need more of are honors for people that are just doing their goddamn jobs, doing them well, consistently and happy to continue to do so. That was John.
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