What is the best place for people in various states to organize?

[garybeck]

I'm talking specifically about election problems.

It appears to me that there needs to be a forum for each state where people can talk about the various anomalities, litigation, issues, etc in their state. BBV has a forum divided up by state but I don't know if people want to go there. 51 capital march has a forum divided by state. Neither of them seem to have much use. Is there another one that people are using for this purpose that I don't know about?

I'd be willing to set up a state-by-state forum at solarbus.org if people think it would get used.

[Helga Scow Stern]

1. Good question, Gary. We had a strong effort going here to investigate

California, but when its leader got excommunicated, it fizzled.

There is also the new group of Kathy Dopp's. Are you familiar with that? I joined, then put it on the back burner because I thought other issues were more pressing.

But state investigations are critical. For instance, I think California is crucial. Arnold is threatening a special 2005 election to get the people to pass his mandate, including redistricting, if I'm not mistaken. I've heard around here that there was fraud in the 2003 recall, and the races on election night seemed to have had that same flip about the same time as Bush/Kerry.

Investigating every state is crucial. The coordinator of the above project to investigate California divided the work into counties, each of which had an official statement of the vote, which had results by precinct. We were gathering this data, using the FOIA if necessary. It was all in the works, and then stopped.

I am glad that you are asking about this. We could just post results here on a thread per state, like we were doing with California. We could even use the voting issues forum, which moves more slowly. There could be a method to gathering and posting the information. I don't have the thread handy for what we had going with California, but it seemed like a good model. It does seem important that someone keep track of it all, and keep everyone on task.

But then I don't know about what is really important to investigate. Is the statement of the vote a good starting point?

[emcguffie]

11. I think the California Secretary of State hates Diebold

He sued them, I think. When he found out they installed uncertified software. Out of the entire country, he seems to be just about the only SOS with any understanding of what is going on.

I think he is also insisting on a paper trail, but didn't have time to implement it before the presidental election.

[Peace Patriot]

2. There was a lot of discussion, referrals, etc. about this today at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=281678

Did you try to www.votersunite.org? They have a plan and a packet on perils of electronic voting. (I can't recall if they are organizing state by state.)

And it sounds like Arnheim and VOTE have some plans to work on various state officials.

I'll look around. I've collected A LOT of stuff on election fraud and voting groups.

I was looking for state by state organization, too.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Go here!

http://www.votersunite.org/info/groups.asp

[americanwoman]

4. On the academic side

These guys at US CountVotes.org seem to be intent on gathering and analyzing all precint-level data. They have a "by state" signup http://www.uscountvotes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=70">here.

[Peace Patriot]

6. americanwoman, your "here" link is not working. What is url?

I'll try US CountVotes.org.

[Peace Patriot]

7. Boy, they sound serious!

Here's their action page...just the text (go to url for links--there are lots)

http://www.uscountvotes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=8&Itemid=62

Take Action

Keep informed about US Count Votes' activities by subscribing to our general mailing list at election-subscribe.org@uscountvotes and submit names of press contacts in your state to help us publicize USCountVotes' public election archive.

Actions You Can Take Now

Written by Kathy Dopp   

Friday, 24 December 2004

Signup for USCountVotes' announcements list
[e-mail] to keep informed about US Count Votes news and activities. Signup for a a state mail list to help in a particular state. We'll also update you on volunteer opportunities as soon as we're ready to accept data.  Look at USCountVotes FAQ page for information on what types of data are needed and collect data with others.

Please contact state election officials to ask them for election results by precinct, by ballot-type and vote counting method, including all overvotes and undervotes.  If you ask, some election officials may want to monitor the accuracy and fairness of elections as much as we do, and will assist by developing information systems to collect the needed precinct level data. 

Donate. Help us develop a nation-wide database of election results to pinpoint  every precinct in America which had likely vote counting errors and allow candidates in the 2006 election to identify precincts with vote counting errors - before they concede.

Help with fundraising.  If you have fundraising experience, we need your ideas.  Please sign up for the US Count Votes Fundraisers email list!

Help us get the word out!  Publicize our data collection system and results by submitting contact information for your local newspaper, TV and radio persons.

Join other voter rights groups.  See OpenVotingConsortium,  VerifiedVoting,  VotersUnite or BallotIntegrity to join your state's voter group - or start a group in your state, and let others know to add links to your new group.

Find out what is happening in your state in terms of its selection of voting equipment. Make sure your state is not selecting touchscreen DRE voting equipment unless it produces a paper ballot that is practical to audit and recount both electronically and by hand.  Not all paper "audit trails" are easily recountable. For example, "paper under glass" systems can be very expensive to recount. Nevada recently said that it would have to pay almost $400,000 and hire outside consultants to recount its paper-under-glass audit trail for its brand-new touchscreen DRE voting equipment!


Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 January 2005 )

[Peace Patriot]

8. repeat of bottom action paragraphs, at uscountvotes.org

Here's what we're looking for. See url in my previous post:

Join other voter rights groups.  See OpenVotingConsortium,  VerifiedVoting,  VotersUnite or BallotIntegrity to join your state's voter group - or start a group in your state, and let others know to add links to your new group.

Find out what is happening in your state in terms of its selection of voting equipment. Make sure your state is not selecting touchscreen DRE voting equipment unless it produces a paper ballot that is practical to audit and recount both electronically and by hand.  Not all paper "audit trails" are easily recountable. For example, "paper under glass" systems can be very expensive to recount. Nevada recently said that it would have to pay almost $400,000 and hire outside consultants to recount its paper-under-glass audit trail for its brand-new touchscreen DRE voting equipment!

[Peace Patriot]

9. Interesting links at:

http://www.uscountvotes.org/index.php?option=com_weblinks&catid=68&Itemid=4

    
Verified Voting
Voting Machine Information by State and County, and a database of reported problems in the 2004 election.


    
Voters Unite
Good resources for Election Officials, and by state lists of Voting Rights Activist Groups, Voing Machine Problems listed by Vendor, and lots of good information.


    
The Open Voting Consortium
This group of computer scientists have been working since 2000 to develop a common-sense trustworthy voting system that is open source and uses a paper ballot with an electronic audit trail that is always reconciled against the paper. Please support


    
Voting Integrity Project
The integrity of the electoral process as a fundamental foundation of democracy


    
Election Investigation Library
Election Investigation Library "Devoted to finding the whole truth and nothing else"

[Peace Patriot]

10. the links...

Verified Voting
Voting Machine Information by State and County, and a database of reported problems in the 2004 election.
http://verifiedvoting.org/


    
Voters Unite
Good resources for Election Officials, and by state lists of Voting Rights Activist Groups, Voing Machine Problems listed by Vendor, and lots of good information.
http://votersunite.org/


    
The Open Voting Consortium
This group of computer scientists have been working since 2000 to develop a common-sense trustworthy voting system that is open source and uses a paper ballot with an electronic audit trail that is always reconciled against the paper. Please support
http://openvotingconsortium.org/


    
Voting Integrity Project
The integrity of the electoral process as a fundamental foundation of democracy
http://www.usvip.org/

    
Election Investigation Library
Election Investigation Library "Devoted to finding the whole truth and nothing else"
http://forum.rasgroup.com/rasforum/

---

http://www.uscountvotes.org/index.php?option=com_weblinks&catid=68&Itemid=4

[americanwoman]

12. Sorry about the link

and glad you figured it out.

Yeah, they do sound serious. I've been keeping my eye on them for a while. I think they may be "the" site/organization that's worth putting some time into to get to the bottom of what's really happening at our boards of election across the US.

[Peace Patriot]

5. http://wesavedemocracy.org/

This is a pretty interesting elections site (which I found at votersunite.org site, in CA section of http://www.votersunite.org/info/groups.asp). But their "discussion board" where local state by state shares info, link is not working. I just emailed them about it.