Committee of Seventy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Committee of Seventy is a good government group in Philadelphia founded in 1904. It is perhaps best known for monitoring elections in the city and its suburbs.

The independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit group gets most of its funding from foundations.

The name comes from the Bible. According to the organization's Web site, "Chronicling the Israelites’ journey through the desert, Exodus tells of seventy elders who were appointed to assist Moses in the governance of the people. In 1904, this Committee of Seventy was so named to represent an analogous function: to be the ethical backbone of a city forgetting its conscience."