Indian American plays key role in voter registration and early voting

U.S. Entrepreneur From India Gives Back as StateDemocracy Foundation Leader

Frank Islam, a successful entrepreneur and investor in the Washington, DC area, recently assumed the Chairmanship of the StateDemocracy Foundation. Its website, www.StateDemocracy.org, is a 1-stop portal that empowers citizens to connect with their lawmakers on the federal level and in all 50 states.

Mr. Islam became a U.S. citizen after emigrating from India at age 16, and eventually founded QSS, Inc., a leading Technology firm that he recently sold to Perot Systems for $250 million. He has numerous awards for leadership, entrepreneurship and excellence. His personal foundation supports educational, cultural and artistic causes worldwide. (See www.ffislam.com).

The StateDemocracy Foundation was founded in 2001 by Hyderabad native Shukoor Ahmed, who came to the U.S. to study computers and political science, and soon became a citizen. StateDemocracy.org was conceived during Mr. Ahmed's 1998 Maryland State Delegate campaign, when he discovered that many voters didn't even know who represented them.

Mr. Islam has taken charge of the StateDemocracy Foundation as a historic national election is breaking records for registering new voters and using online innovations to campaign. Indeed, the StateDemocracy.org is part of this technological revolution in offering citizens online access to everything necessary for voting -- including Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot applications, plus a Polling Place Locator -- all applicable to any jurisdiction nationwide.

In late September, Mr. Islam announced that facebook.com, the pioneering social networking website, had begun offering widgets that enabled its users to add these StateDemocracy VoterTools to their facebook profile page so they could encourage all their friends to register and vote. Many other websites have similarly added these widgets as a public service to their visitors.



Reflecting on his attraction to the StateDemocracy Foundation, Mr. Islam said, "With the tough times we're in, it's imperative that people reach out to their leaders, and we give them the information they need to do so," noting that site traffic has increased by 400% in the past month.
Since 2001, nearly 500,000 people have visited StateDemocracy.org, with over 150,000 registering as regular users. Mr. Islam hopes the business skills and principles that brought him such great business success can similarly help to boost the Foundation's fortunes even higher. His other goals include recruitment to diversify the Board's expertise, strategic planning, seeking greater grant funding and expanding partnerships with complementary online citizen engagement groups.

In all endeavors, whether in the world of business or charity, Frank Islam strives to create opportunities that are sustainable and uplifting for humanity -- always guided by the virtues of hard work, focus, quality, innovation and kindness!