What would you like to come out of the National Election Reform Conference

[Kip Humphrey]

What WOULD YOU LIKE to come out of the National Election Reform Conference this weekend in Nashville?


Where do we go from here?

[tridim]

1. A national voting standard

using standardized paper ballots and a black marker.

[KaryninMiami]

2. Enough momentum and evidence to impeach this entire administration.

and an aggressive plan to make sure the country and the world knows the truth and a commitment from everyone to never let this story die or be buried under the rug.

A list of action items that we are all to be responsible for, to make it certain that we NEVER, EVER have a repeat performance of 2004 or 2000 (or 2002 here in FL where our machines were first rigged in favor of Jeb). NEVER AGAIN.

A way for all of us to become a united front for change.

I'm sure there's more but I need to finish packing so I can get some sleep before my 6am flight!

Hope to see many of you in Nashville!

[emlev]

19. I second that, plus coordination of efforts

and a plan for getting the message beyond politically active blues and Greens, both to less active blues and greens, and to others who believe in justice, regardless of party affiliation.

[garybeck]

3. I ask for one thing.

videos of all the presentations, so the rest of the country can learn about the state of our democracy.

[Kip Humphrey]

4. Email C-SPAN if you haven't yet

Ask them to cover the convention ( [e-mail] ) Saturday.

[Fly by night]

9. We are videotaping the entire 14 hours of the plenary sessions

and will at least post the audio on the net, if not the video also. We will let people know how to obtain the audio and video.

[ccarter84]

12. I got some bandwidth if you need it

I know its expensive sometimes, and since my site is pretty much dead in the water I got some bandwidth I can give ya if you want, PM me once you have some audio clips

[Jo March]

38. I have bandwidth as well - at one point, I had accumulated 6 million hits

That was over a 5 week period when I focused only on election fraud.

The new VOTE website, when it goes live, will have some bandwidth as well.

[garybeck]

15. excellent. what you're doing is

one of the most important things in the whole conference. making the videos available is so important.

[Ramsey]

5. A paper trail.

[garybeck]

13. Paper trail isn't good enough. count the ballots n/t

[FogerRox]

35. VVPt sucks wind- it cant effectivly be used as a tool to prevent fraud

And makes some people think that a DRE"s w/VVPT is Ok --it isnt

I dont trust DRE's and I dont rust the people who advocate their use.

[Warpy]

6. paper ballots, counted by human beings

Anything else is tyrrany.

[davidgmills]

7. The following:

1. A paper ballot, pen marked, and hand counted after being placed upside down in a clear plastic ballot box;

2.. A federal statute, giving the federal courts jurisdiction over the voting process for the election of our US President, US Senators, and US Congressmen;

3. This federal statute would require that there be a federal ballot separate and apart from a state ballot;

4. This federal statute would also give the federal courts the authority to order a statewide recount in a rocket manner, and after the recount, give them authority to have a rocket election contest, with rocket discovery deadlines and a rocket trial date, all consistent with concluding the contest before certification of the electors for the electoral college.

5. The separate federal ballot would also expedite recounts, avoid errors cause by long state ballots, might make paper ballots an easier sell, and help divide state and federal jurisdiction.

6. Exit polling done by federal employees and definitely non-private.

Just a lawyer's two cents.

[lyonn]

25. Great idea

Using Fed. law for U.S. elected offices.

[MissWaverly]

37. just a suggestion

Why not have a seperate national election for the presidency and for the congress, I'm sorry but each of these state BOES are like a bunch of chicken coops with their own rooster, and I think that the presidency is too important to be decided by wink, wink nudge, nudge local politicians, asking each state to give up it's power and tradition is impossible. Nationalize the whole thing and have an
independent non-partisian panel do the tabulations.

[keepthemhonest]

8. I believe

that the best of the best in election fraud/reform will be at this conference, I think I will have an idea of whether we are going anywhere or nowhere once I meet these people. I hope they all have brilliant ideas about how to prove fraud because I just can't take Bush getting away with this. * and his cronies are above the law right now.

I am hoping that the people involved with the legal battles (both present and future) will have good cases to bring to court. Honestly I believe that is the only way we can get these people at present.Legislative here in Georgia went nowhere, so that is out for this year but it would be better to have federal legislation anyway instead of local.

I am looking for inspiration to come out of this.

[Kip Humphrey]

10. Please keep this kicked - so attendees can see it this weekend

Please keep this kicked. Confernce attendees will be checking DU. Let them know what you want to come out of the conference and where we should go from here to further the movement and recover of our democracy. Gotta catch a plane...

[pat_k]

11. Attendee here -- seeing, kicking, and replying

We are attending to audit the conference and participate in the discussion groups.

As some of you may know, our approach is one of direct value-based confrontation, primarily with our public "servants" (see www.january6th.org), using heavy doses of shame and a clue-stick.

What we would like to see come out of the conference is a move (not movement) from Election Reform to Election Revolt. Worthy as these efforts are, we don't believe investigating crimes and/or micro-managing process are required to produce the results we all want.

We are heartened to see the action of Paul Lehto in Washington; attacking the core legitimacy of the DREs and are looking forward to his presentation.

Equally encouraging is the attendance of Congresswoman McKinney. She is just the right person to bring a message of "Act Now! - Or else." back into the DC Beltway Euphemedia bubble.

The reality of the conference itself is more than sufficient "success." Only more good can flow from it.

-----
www.thedeanpeople.org

[ccarter84]

14. I want this thing taken to the next stage

There has been a bit of a slowing to this movement, everyone has felt it, I think this conference will be a way to unify and re-energize the loyalists. I hope that it will give them connections that can be used over the coming months.
I hope that we can start to develop an action plan, part of which could be:
1) convincing some more mainstream bloggers to take up the case via a well reasoned well sourced argument.
2) since we don't have much domestic media support, start from the outside: european newspapers are as good as ours in some cases, and the russians have been skeptical of the fairness of this election since it happened.
3) it might be time to start upping the ante in order to get more public exposure. If we could find ways to assess our numbers, we could then determine our next course of action, I would advocate variants of non-violent resistance, but its a little hazey on how we could actually use such tactics. Perphaps a boycott of diebold and financial institutions using their atm's for example.

Have a good weekend all, network well, play nice with others, and raise some hell.
Sorry I can't be there
-CC

[keepthemhonest]

17. I hope it will unify

and strengthen us as well> i leave tonight after work for the conference should be a four hour drive from here.

[garybeck]

16. another wish

a report on Democracy Now! on the conference. Any word if Amy Goodman is going to report on it? i would think she'd be very willing to. One of our few allies in the media, and probably the only one that has a nationally viewed TV show.

[emlev]

20. Link to submit a story idea to Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/storyidea.pl

[garybeck]

24. done and kicked....everyone should do this

a lot of people watch democracy now

[Peace Patriot]

18. A Declaration of Independence from Corporate Control of U.S. elections.

The Declaration of Independence is laid out in a form that we can use. It starts off with a statement of general principles ("We hold these truths to be self-evident..."), lists the abuses of King George III, and declares an end of allegiance to the British Empire and its King.

The last part--the action to be taken--is what needs to be discussed. Personally, I'm ready to start throwing electronic voting machines into Boston Harbor. Short of that, perhaps the Velvet Revolution's boycott of these companies is the answer. Diebold et al have many gov't and university contracts not related to electronic voting. If they do not meet VR's demands on electronic voting, they need to hounded off our university campuses and out of government, and driven out of the electronic voting machine business.

Another proposal for action might be "We will not vote on these machines"--call for voters to use absentee ballots and paper ballots where available, and to submit their own paper ballot if no other is available, and insist that it be counted. (Doesn't solve the central electronic tabulation problem, but it makes the point.) Like Gandhi's campaign against the British monopoly on salt in India, Martin Luther King's bus boycott, and the American Revolutionaries' rejection of British tea, we have to find the symbolic heart of this matter.

Planks of the Declaration:

Return elections to the public venue.
Elections should be 100% transparent and verifiable.

No secret, proprietary programming code anywhere in our elections, for any reason.
No ownership or control of any aspect of our elections by any private person or corporation.
No partisan conflicts of interest (voting machine company CEO chairing Bush-Cheney campaign and promising to "deliver" Ohio to Bush).
No corporate lobbying for no paper trail and no auditing controls for their election machinery.
No corporate lobbying for billions of dollars from the sale and servicing of election machinery at the taxpayers' expense.
No corporate corruption of our election officials with "revolving door" employment, wining and dining, and who knows what else?
No secret central electronic vote tabulators owned and controlled by two companies (and run by two brothers, funded by rightwing groups).
Stop the TV networks and news monopolies from reporting any vote counts or exit poll results until every vote is counted.
End collusion among news monopolies, electronic voting system companies, private exit pollsters, and election officials to call elections before every vote is counted and verified.


Further:

A Constitutional Amendment banning all private money in political campaigns.

Enough! Fini!

[emlev]

21. kick it right to the harbor! --splash-- n/t

[emlev]

22. For Common Cause to take the message to the EPC

Both Cliff Arnebeck and Barbara Burt from Common Cause are listed as conference speakers. I want them to take the message back to the Election Protection Coalition, of which Common Cause was a member organization, that the fight did not end with the election and that Ohio is not the only venue worthy of post-election investigation, litigation, prosecution...

There were 25,000 EPC volunteers for the election, many of whom traveled from their (our) home states to protect the election. I firmly believe that thousands of these folks would join in the election justice/reform movement if they knew it existed and knew what they could do. I want to see the EPC contact these folks and bring them in.

[JunkYardDogg]

23. A model upon which to structure State based Election Protection Groups

Set up a model structure for the Establishment of an Election Protection Group in each State, then forming an Election Protection
Chapter in Each County
This is what we are doing right now in Calif
We will have a Website set up hopefully this week, and from that, we can be a model for every state -
We are drawing on our Participants from Progressive groups through out the State-
Our emphasis is going to be as an Action Group
We got a good start last week in Sacramento
Stay Tuned folks
Kip
if you want any more info contact me

[emlev]

26. Kick in hopes of a late night update n/t

[GuvWurld]

27. Embrace the frame: creating a basis for confidence

There are aspects of our election system that make it impossible to know what to believe, creating permanent irresolvable uncertainty.

There is, then, no current basis for confidence in the results reported from U.S. federal elections. There is no reason to believe.

At the conclusion of any election there ought to instead be a permanent record that forever sustains unanimous agreement about the outcome.

This will be achieved when we have created a new basis for confidence.

This is a frame central to the No Confidence Movement.

Read the No Confidence Resolution here:
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2004/11/no-confidence-resolution.html

[Peace Patriot]

28. Kip, are you blogging from the Nashville conference?

We were hoping someone would volunteer to do a realtime blog, reporting on speeches and developments, and maybe conveying bloggers questions and comments to the conference. Are you--or is anyone who has commented above--there?

[adolfo]

29. Standardized accounting of ballots

Standardized and detailed accounting for every type of ballot listed by precinct. In Florida we list absentee, provisional, and early votes under dedicated "precincts". It is very difficult to audit results that are not broken down by location. A report request has to be made from the SOE in these cases which takes more time.

Besides being a matter of convenience it is also a security concern. Under our current system it is possible to inflate early or absentee results without raising any alarm.

[Peace Patriot]

30. Kick! Hey, Tennessee, what's happening? n/t

[Helga Scow Stern]

31. Yes! Tell us please!

[Wiley50]

33. Quick update from Nashvegas

Hi Folks,
I've gotta leave in 5 min to getback up there. So real quick.
We are all overloaded with so much input all at once. The conference is a great success!
It's so wonderful to be able to put faces to so many names. Andy, Brad, ,Kip and so many others will be my best friends for life.
Cynthia Mckinney did manage to show up and was awesome!
Closing sessions are this morning and I've gotta jump in the shower and drive an hour to get back there.
So, I'm sure the floodgates on more info will open up soon.
See Ya1

Wiley

[emlev]

34. Thanks, Wiley. Looking forward to the floodgates. n/t

[zann725]

32. Inaugurate President Kerry.

And get this country back on track NOW!

[Bill Bored]

36. Additional research to find out who won 2004!

Obviously Ohio and FL need to be looked at, but so do NM and IA in my opinion. There is still a lot of paper and other evidence out there that could be checked. To make it bi-partisan, let the Repubs look at WI or PA, the rest of NH, or whatever. I don't care -- I just want to know the true outcome.

The "Truth is All", you might say. (Please hold the applause.)