What do YOU think needs to be DONE in election MOVEMENT?

[Land Shark]

I'm not talking about what Legislation is needed, and/or what Lawsuits. Nor about calling out folks, identifying "trolls", purges, intra-movement critiques and warfare, etc., no matter whether or how merited or not. Positive ideas for moving forward with citizens, is the focus here.

I mean, what information, what organization, what writing, what speaking, what teaching, what media, what resources what ___________________ (you name it here as long as not involving votes, legislation or lawsuits) is needed? To get the movement "to the next level" WITH THE PUBLIC (rather than focusing primarily or exclusively on Congress?)

This is not to say that no voting, legislation or lawsuits is needed.

This is basically a needs assessment for the election reform movement. If readers see an idea they think is a good one, they may well follow up on it!

If you say "Money" is needed that's probably true, but try to add a solution to that particular problem, at least in part, to be the best of your ability, as to where to get money. Something that hasn't been tried as much might be a satisfactory answer just by mentioning the idea.

So, What do YOU think needs to be DONE in the election MOVEMENT? To catalyze, to inspire, to spread things more life wildfire?

One more thing: Seemingly easy answers like getting message onto 24/7 commercial media rotation are also not particularly looked for, just like the answer of "Money", unless you add a specific strategy or plan for the same.

Other than that, for getting "We the People" together/getting the word out, the sky is the limit!

[blm]

1. A simplification to bring most public on board.

Paper ballots. Hand Counted. Videocameras trained on every vote count.

People would demand it if it were 120 million dollars that belonged to them and needed to be counted.

[Febble]

2. Well, I would suggest

that the American public needs to become aware that their governments are decided by a margin of a few percentage points, and yet their voting system is casual and so approximate and so opaque that the margin of sheer error is likely to be greater than the margin in the results.

It's the casualness that gets me, as a Brit. Voting and counting are both so ceremonial here, and by contrast, your elections are a shambles - long queues, machines that don't work, broken seals, stuck printers, incomprehensible ballots, flying chads, sleepovers, non-random recounts - and that's before you even start on deliberate voter suppression and vote theft.

So my bottom line is: you don't have to make the case that anything was actually stolen (although I am certainly not arguing that it wasn't) but that there no way of knowing whether it was or it wasn't, or even, at best, whether the winner won by sheer accident.


edited for grammar

[kpete]

3. Spread like wildfire...

Take it to the people

Personally, I want to be a confident participant in my country's democracy. If I cannot trust elections how can I trust anyone in any elected position.

As far as what to do about it. Education is key. For me, personally, there is SO MUCH INFORMATION, much of it repetitive and redundant.

Perhaps, we could put together an "Election Fraud For Dummies". This may not be needed for many of the posters here at this forum, but if we are to catalyze, to inspire, to spread things more like wildfire then, we need to reach OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES into the community.

If we could work together to "distill" the facts into an easy to understand pamphlet - and then find a way to distribute it, I think that could be a great start.

I am on board if needed, and of course, willing to help in any way I can...k

[Ellipsis]

8. "Education is key" simple, well stated.

If people worked together on one brain storming thread for talking points you could quite quickly, especially if we qualified it to "no bickering" ...at least on one thread . Like the daily ER thread

Also... what we can do now, and what we want to do need be established into a practical time line. For instance, We can very easily count votes now at the precinct level and report those numbers up. But to create a national holiday for voting or pass HR6200 is more complex. None of the above requires a change in technology but does reduce the potential for disenfranchisement.

...more variables when introducing technology into the mix... We have people who have yet to implement, people who have equipment, different generations of equipment, some without printing capabilities, some with high maintenance costs, high failure ratios, and people who have dumped equipment. I am not a advocating here, ... I am saying is there is equipment one can focus on first to remove or replace and when and where. It's all about time line, money, potential liability... not mention the cronyism that got us to this point. It's about Geography like Ohio, and Florida where a few percentage points swing national elections.

.... a map and a calender.

[stellanoir]

10. "Election Fraud for Dummies"

I love it.

So many are like me, a self declared cyber ninny but still after marginal study in early '03, even I could ascertain what a CIA employee said when I asked them if they knew about the EVMs. That person said "what that they don't work. . .?" I said that's all you really need to know.

But I think about it a lot. How many of our representatives are trained in legalese (unlike the OP) but not so informed technologically. It's largely a problem of language so dumming it down is really a grand idea.

[galloglas]

4. One angle...

1) Settle on a general consensus of what is wrong and what needs to be fixed.

2) Divide the entire country into "media districts".
(I.E, a given state has x-number of television stations. Create a map showing market share in the entire geographic region.
Some counties might have 5 local stations, some areas might have one station that covers 12 counties.)

3) Subdivide the media into TV, radio, press, etc.

4) Rank each media in the order to which they give attention to local issues,
specifying what venue on the media provides that attention. I.E.,
a) a talk show host (radio or TV)

b) locally produced entertainment (think Prairie Home Companion,
gone local) (radio or TV)

c) LTTEs, local columnists, local paper editorials (newspapers)

d) open local meetings (town halls, TIF hearings, etc.)

5) Develop an EIR "local media task force" (determined by geographic area) to
originate citizen input aimed at the issues, and respond to the
(expected) spin from the opposition.

6) Create a "central exchange forum", nationally, where the "local media task
forces" can float ideas, fish for information, ask for help from
colleagues.

7) Have capable, knowledgable, volunteer "locals" assigned to the various
media, with the mission to

a) develop a non-adversarial
relationship with their "target media" and

b) create regular input, regarding our issues to
those media, and

c) develop the credibility with that media that the local "media
task force" person would be that media's "go to" source for
expertise regarding EIR issues.

8) Maintain a list of these people, and a compilation of all backlogged input
by these people to their media, accessible for members nationwide
to share

[ClassWarrior]

5. A media campaign...

Advertising, speakers from an election reform "think tank," daily talking points memos to electeds and media, etc. What's needed now is awareness-raising. Details can come once the larger public has a base of awareness about this crisis.

(Thanks for asking! B-):thumbsup:)

NGU.

[Bill Bored]

6. It's about time!

We need to focus our attention on the very BEST self-evident arguments against privatized unverifiable, unreliable voting systems (and elections) and separate the wheat from the chaff.

Before I ramble on, I think we should try to show that elections officials can rig elections -- not just the usual mysterious outsiders. After that, ask them to prove they're NOT doing so. Get them to open up the process. Not necessarily by accusing them, but simply by pointing out that it's possible no matter how much "security" the system has. There will always be insiders who have the keys.

There are also a number of gray areas that divide the movement.

I think we need to agree to agree on certain things and not sweat so many details or insist on absolutes and attack each other. We'll get a lot more done that way.

If you don't think electronic vote counting can be monitored, audited or controlled, then there's no point in discussing that, but if you can concede that at least it's possible, then come up with the best ways to do it and make it happen.

And keep in mind that this is nothing new! Punch cards and optical scan have been around for decades. DREs for about 15 years. It's only the HAVA-inspired and funded move to paperless, software-dependent DREs in large numbers that has aroused so much suspicion and outrage among the current generation of activists, but in fact, most of the older equipment counts electronically too and was seldom verified even where possible.

I think the era of unauditable systems is coming to an end though. Legislation may precede standards or regulation, but it's coming, either by Congress or the states. States that refuse to comply should be singled out, embarrassed, and called out, like Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia to name a few -- one at a time.

The next step is to audit the auditable systems. Not enough work being done on that in my opinion. The math is a bit complex for one thing and some still trust the systems for another. I reject both of those arguments.

I think we need to realize that this is nothing new but we now have an opportunity to stop it in its tracks and achieve verifiability. The only thing that can stop us now is using the wrong, weak, arguments (like relying on polling discrepancies instead of pointing out obviously flawed and unacceptable equipment and software designs), or taking extreme positions that will probably fail on a large scale for various reasons.

We also need to be naming the names of the very few who are responsible for promoting this junk. They are NOT HR 550 supporters -- they are vendors and their shills who write weak voting system standards under the guise of saving the taxpayers money. This is one of the still mostly untold stories and it's been going on since 1990. It's a REAL conspiracy -- NOT just a theory -- and it involves elections officials too. I think it's political, red and blue, but there are obviously defectors from both sides. It gets very little attention, even among activists.

None of this means we should compromise on election integrity. It just means the solutions are a bit more complex than some of us would like. At least HAVA and those who are misreading it and taking e-voting too far have created enough of a firestorm to inspire change. Without that, they'd be hacking punch cards though and even the honest systems would have high residual vote rates. We certainly shouldn't have traded that for what we have now though.

[Febble]

18. Yes

to all this.

[livvy]

7. I agree with kpete, education is extremely important. So many ....

people have no idea that there is even a shadow of a doubt that elections are fair. Call it blind faith, fingers-in-the-ear, turtle-in-the-shell, lack of curiosity, or whatever you want to call it. Too many people have no idea what has gone on with elections. Some could give a hoot, some don't believe, others would care if they knew.
My personal favorites for election reform are public financing, along with getting rid of these dratted machines. Both issues face some tough challenges. I think public financing would give people a sense of ownership and empowerment, and reduce the cynicism many people feel about their voice in government. Fine people, with great innovative ideas, compassion, and more integrity than the pretzelnut has in a split end, are eliminated from leadership roles because they lack the funding, and aren't aggressive enough to raise the needed capital.
We need to get rid of these dratted machines because they're just a bad deal, period. Without a way to verify their accuracy, they are useless, just another money drainer for the American taxpayer.
I guess trying to get some of the big groups on board would be an idea. I'm not the biggest fan of MoveOn, but they do have a fairly large group of members, and a good network of communication.

[freedom fighter jh]

9. Raise the Witness Issue

The right to witness the counting is essential to a sense that the people own the vote and therefore own the government that derives from it. I love this idea of yours, Land Shark.

In alignment with that, I agree with KPete that education is key.

[MissWaverly]

11. Land Shark, here is my two cents

There needs to be a forum sponsored at the most prestigious academic institution in this country
with ideas on how to replace the DREs with an alternative but reliable system. Okay, most people
are aware of the negatives but there is no clear idea of where we go. We are going to have to
lobby for change, we have already spent a king's ransom on a faulty system, we need a spark
which can get people behind us. We need big names speaking up for reform like Michael Fox did
for stem cells. If we rely on the courts for change, it may take twenty years and we can't
afford to wait that long, also we need the major unions involved in election reform.

:-)

[nashville_brook]

12. need an endorsement by an AUDITING firm -- use the ATM metaphor

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=461662&mesg_id=461662 --

i loved gary beck's thread earlier today. i think this exchange between he and his company's auditor really illustrates the matter to... well... dummies.

[GuvWurld]

13. Radical departure here - consciousness raising

I have always said that election reform is not the end goal, but rather the best tactic available to catalyze peaceful revolution. We talk a lot about the Constitution and Declaration of Independence in this forum but what are we really doing that lays down an inviolable line to preserve rights and freedoms we were supposedly born with? We have lost many such endowments lo these six years. Yanno?

I agree with several suggestions in this thread starting with the idea of a think tank. The think tank will lead the way at generating the educational material and developing media content. I've fancied myself an advocacy journalist for some time now, and I've been explicit about defining that to mean I state my goals up front and then use my access to media to pursue those goals. The primary example is blogging, first at GuvWurld and then We Do Not Consent, where I write about my projects, organizations, public speaking, etc. There is a natural synergy that draws power from the same basic principles behind all propaganda. Everyone should study the most effective propaganda campaigns of history and apply the knowledge in promoting our messages.

The work that must happen goes far beyond message development and delivery. We have to put the unity back in community. The most important way in which we can overcome what divides us is to define how things should be, or perhaps stated another way, as we would prefer things to be. This can be done in terms of the most fundamentally core conservative ideals of America. We stand for the Constitution and will stand no more for leaders who shred it.

The Declaration of Independence, which might be thought of as our country's birth certificate, includes instructions for all time. This document doesn't just outline the reasons for breaking with England, it also states that we should initiate subsequent revolutions should such conditions reappear. Let's talk about those conditions constantly. This would illustrate the parallels with today by way of education about current events and recent history. We describe the ideals we'd like to restore (a very conservative frame) thus presenting our preferences, or how we would answer the question "what would be better?" This question is a powerful frame that should run through our messaging. For debate, it ensures civility and centrist solutions by focusing on the definition of "better."

One of our lead "betters" will be about the power belonging to the People. This moment in time must be when our society realizes, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, that we can click our heels and have the power to go home anytime. The Power can be addressed by referencing the relationship between the government and We The People. To be sure, what we want is to change that relationship. Let's start out by acknowledging that as the real end goal. Then we can come back to election reform, or more broadly election integrity, as a main means to that end.

Ultimately, through all this engaging, education, and unifying, an inescapable conclusion will emerge: Peaceful revolution is necessary, NOW!

[AtLiberty]

14. So many things...

One surprising and disheartening thing which stood out to me the past few years is the lack of interest of election reform by young people. I'm in my late 40s and I often felt like I was among the youngsters in the movement.

If we could somehow light a fire with young people, it seems a lot of what try to we do would be easier and fall into place.

[eridani]

I'd suggest that we look to the California universal health care movement

They came very, very close in the last legislative session to success, coming within two lousy votes of overturning the Governator's veto. How did they do it?

Firstly, they had a legislative champion in Senator Sheila Kuehl (known to those of us of a "certain age" as Zelda Gilroy of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis), who has devoted the last ten years of her senatorial career to promoting the legislation.

Secondly, Health Care for All--California had a truly massive ongoing educational outreach lasting ten years, in which they made presentations to and got endorsements from every single union, business, church, political and community group they could think of, and thus were able to get effective citizen lobbying into place whenever key committee votes were scheduled by notifying the endorsing organizationa and asking them to mobilize their membership.

We need to do the same thing locally on the state level, and on the national level as well. If we could get Holt to do some revamping on his bill, he'd probably be ideal. In WA state, one of our local election integrity activists is working with the King County Dems Legislative Action Committee to get mandatory auditing of optical scanning in place during the coming legislative session. Compared to universal health care advocates, we have an advantage in that when it comes to health care you can just forget about most Republicans, but it should be much easier to get them to come out for election transparency.

I've given away several hundred of the SolarBus CDs at various meetings and events over the past couple of years. This is a very valuable tool. I think we also need several versions of a briefer slide show and for people to rehearse presentations at specific lengths of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 45 minutes to go with them.

[bleever]

15. KISS

Keep it simple, stupid.

Specifically: every precinct everywhere needs standards by which whatever leaves the room is as verifiable as the score of a high school football game.

Everybody working the gym, or church, or elementary school, or garage where a polling place is set up, knows that all the votes were counted, and that they can all be recounted.

It's like the collection plate being passed at church. Everyone can see.

It's like your bank account. Deposits don't get "flipped" to being withdrawals.

And it all comes down to the folks in the room. Their job should be to know that all votes were counted, and that they can all be recounted.


:thumbsup: for making me really think about it.

[emlev]

16. "Think Globally, Protect the Vote Locally" by Paul Rogat Loeb

I don't agree with everything in this article, but it's worth reading.

From TheNation.com


THINK GLOBALLY, PROTECT THE VOTE LOCALLY
By Paul Rogat Loeb

Just as local cities have adopted environmental and wage laws that exceed federal standards, maybe it’s time for local initiatives protecting the sanctity of the vote. We’ve been seeing electoral abuses and manipulations since the Bush administration took power. So we need to ensure the Democrats make national electoral protection a priority. But we can also act on a local level.

http://www.paulloeb.org/articles/protectthevotelocally.html

[emlev]

17. Grow the movement--a bunch of ideas on this and related subtopics

Education is part of it for sure. We need to find ways for people to become active without having to know the vast amounts of technical, legal, "burrocratic" and anecdotal information so many of us carry around in our heads and hard drives.

We need to tie the issues together with other social change issues to build networks and coalitions. To begin with, the voting rights movement and election integrity movement need to be working more closely together, if not merging.

(GuvWurld has talked in the past about approaching groups that work on other progressive issues and convincing them to see election integrity as their secondary issue because of the massive effect elections have on so many issues.)

We also need to be continuing the development the resources the movement had for this election so that they work more effectively and on a bigger scale for the 2008 election. Here I'm talking about things like the Vote Count Protection Project, Video the Vote, the text messaging system for calling people to action, the instant analysis software, etc. Most of these are still linked to at Velvet Revolution Election Protection Strike Force.

I also think it's important that we pursue justice in the elections that haven't gotten much attention, the down-ticket races or quieter Congressional races from 2006. There are many many instances of huge election irregularities. These must be pursued because the integrity of every election is important, and pursuing them provides an opportunity for people to get involved at the local level. I've been thinking for awhile that election integrity has a unique opportunity to involve people locally because elections happen on such a local level. So people who live in small communities that might never have a decent-sized protest no longer have to feel there's nothing they can do to make change unless they drive a long way to the nearest big city protest. They can work on the issue of election integrity right there at home, and probably get more media coverage for it than can easily be achieved in bigger jurisdictions. So a "small town strategy" is called for, in addition to the other strategies.

I also think that we'd be well-advised (easy for me to say, since I'm advising!) to note that election officials all over the country are currently in just horrible positions. I'd be that most of them have the jobs they have because they care about elections, yet here they are, sitting on piles of solid gold fecal matter, needing to save face and save their jobs but unable to do their jobs in any kind of ethical way with the equipment they've been forced to purchase/endorse. If we can help them find a way out of this quandary, I think we will be able to add many of them to our ranks. This would be an amazing feat for the movement and I think bears significant further thought.

This relatively small movement has had significant successes very quickly, and I think our success story--incomplete as it is--can inspire people to take action. So many people feel so hopeless about their ability to do anything that will really make a difference. So I'd like to see us take our story to the people. The tide has really turned on e-voting, and it's because of our work.

I also think it's time for us to be promoting a variety of solutions to our election problems.

And we need to continue to develop relationships with the official leadership in this country to further establish movement leaders as "go to" people for members of Congress, election officials, media, etc.

That's what's on the top of my head. If I dig deeper, I'll post again. Thanks for the great thread, O Sharp-Toothed One.

[rumpel]

19. From a marketing view point

Considering the miserable voter turnout of elections in this country

the target audience can be

a) a totally disinterested and disconnected (from general political issues) group
b) minimally interested but no time group
c) know of the issues but believe it can't be helped group
d) very interested but do not want to or can expend an extra effort group

I think for many people "politicians" are people that exist behind an invisible veil - remote from every day life. Many speak of democracy, however in practice do not realize democracy is participatory or simply do not care.
People know more about Paris Hilton or Madonna's private life than what chemicals their elected officials have or have not allowed to be dumped into your family's food and why. So, election systems are not priority. The cause and effect connection.

It has to be tied into issues directly affecting them every day, to first drill in that "We The People" drive the changes, and in order to have those changes, "We The People" have to oversee our elections.

Just throwing out some spontaneous thoughts:
small community (neighborhood) meetings

Unsolicited flyers and mailers go straight into trash. Perhaps a regular "short" column to be inserted in community newsletters.
Should there be no such newsletter, encourage one or create one, that incorporates something of interest for everyone. (You can approach local businesses to run ads and raise printing ink costs)
Activists and organizations can be present at local fairs and events etc. or organize their own.

On a macro scale informercials perhaps?

not very creative :( I will think some more...

[Fly by night]

20. State-by-state investigations of bribery of state, local election officials

I have no doubt that the decisions that have been made in Tennessee regarding DREs were at least partially the result of serious direct and indirect bribery of our officials. It would be nice to have some organization pony up the resources to conduct an investigation of this practice. Our state election official organization is underwritten by the DRE companies, who ply the members with open bars, lavish meals and other inducements. Then, at the national meetings of these same officials, ocean cruises are likewise underwritten. But it doesn't stop there. When ten of us paid (over $3,000) to attend the annual meeting of our state's election officials, we were treated to a talk about how it was illegal for elected officials to take money and other favors from contractors in Tennessee, but that same practice was not illegal for appointed officials (like the ones sitting in the audience). WTF???

There is nothing like the scent of old-fashioned bribery to add some blood to the election reform water. Citizens who don't want to take the time to learn how insecure the vapor-based voting systems are would respond when they learn that this equipment was purchased by officials who profitted handsomely from that decision.

So add in-depth investigations of bribery and corruption to the list.

[Sancho]

21. An excellent thread! We need to be faster and catch 'em in the act!

There's much better effort to watch and record election issues than we had in 2000......but......

I wish we had the infrastructure to react by noon to early undervote reports or voter complaints and get to the problem precincts in time to record or interview or document exactly what is happening.

If one or two election supervisors/hackers/cheaters go to jail, it would cause America to pay attention.

Everything we complain about is to after-the-fact. Let's be ready to send in the troops at the first sign of a problem before the culprits can clean up the evidence.

[emlev]

22. A bunch of thoughts

When I posted this as #17 above, I meant for it to be as a reply to the OP, but accidentally made it a reply to an article I'd posted. Here it is again. Would love to hear responses to any of the ideas herein.
emlev

Education is part of it for sure. We need to find ways for people to become active without having to know the vast amounts of technical, legal, "burrocratic" and anecdotal information so many of us carry around in our heads and hard drives.

We need to tie the issues together with other social change issues to build networks and coalitions. To begin with, the voting rights movement and election integrity movement need to be working more closely together, if not merging.

(GuvWurld has talked in the past about approaching groups that work on other progressive issues and convincing them to see election integrity as their secondary issue because of the massive effect elections have on so many issues.)

We also need to be continuing the development the resources the movement had for this election so that they work more effectively and on a bigger scale for the 2008 election. Here I'm talking about things like the Vote Count Protection Project, Video the Vote, the text messaging system for calling people to action, the instant analysis software, etc. Most of these are still linked to at Velvet Revolution Election Protection Strike Force.

I also think it's important that we pursue justice in the elections that haven't gotten much attention, the down-ticket races or quieter Congressional races from 2006. There are many many instances of huge election irregularities. These must be pursued because the integrity of every election is important, and pursuing them provides an opportunity for people to get involved at the local level. I've been thinking for awhile that election integrity has a unique opportunity to involve people locally because elections happen on such a local level. So people who live in small communities that might never have a decent-sized protest no longer have to feel there's nothing they can do to make change unless they drive a long way to the nearest big city protest. They can work on the issue of election integrity right there at home, and probably get more media coverage for it than can easily be achieved in bigger jurisdictions. So a "small town strategy" is called for, in addition to the other strategies.

I also think that we'd be well-advised (easy for me to say, since I'm advising!) to note that election officials all over the country are currently in just horrible positions. I'd be that most of them have the jobs they have because they care about elections, yet here they are, sitting on piles of solid gold fecal matter, needing to save face and save their jobs but unable to do their jobs in any kind of ethical way with the equipment they've been forced to purchase/endorse. If we can help them find a way out of this quandary, I think we will be able to add many of them to our ranks. This would be an amazing feat for the movement and I think bears significant further thought.

This relatively small movement has had significant successes very quickly, and I think our success story--incomplete as it is--can inspire people to take action. So many people feel so hopeless about their ability to do anything that will really make a difference. So I'd like to see us take our story to the people. The tide has really turned on e-voting, and it's because of our work.

I also think it's time for us to be promoting a variety of solutions to our election problems.

And we need to continue to develop relationships with the official leadership in this country to further establish movement leaders as "go to" people for members of Congress, election officials, media, etc.

That's what's on the top of my head. If I dig deeper, I'll post again. Thanks for the great thread, O Sharp-Toothed One.

[eridani]

29. I think you are dead on about elections officials

There is an almost universal human tendency to justify anything that you've blown a huge wad of cash on. Reformers should also accept administrative convenience as a perfectly reasonable goal as long as it never, ever conflicts with transparency.

[Time for change]

23. I posted some ideas on this a few months ago

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=710029&mesg_id=710029

To summarize the main points:

Prevention of voter registration fraud
One important step towards preventing this kind of fraud is to ascertain precisely how it was committed. Then, we must ensure that there is enough oversight of the process so that it isn’t likely to happen again.

Beyond that, it seems to me that the Democratic Party and its allies need to be much more vigilant in ensuring that its registered voters STAY registered. In the 2004 election great amounts of resources were put into getting out the vote on Election Day. Couldn’t we put a similar effort into examining the voter rolls to make sure that our registered voters remain registered by Election Day?

Prevention of central tabulator fraud
It seems so simple. All we need to do is have one volunteer in every precinct in the country (in states where elections are expected to be competitive), to obtain the pre-calculator vote count at the time that the polls close. Then, if the results of an election seem suspicious, all we need to do is compare the pre-calculator counts to the post-calculator counts, and if we identify large mis-matches, then we can feel confident that that’s where the problem is. Then, a full recount of those precincts where mis-matches are identified should be demanded.


I don't know much about the technicalities of preventing electronic vote switching fraud, but here is some of what I wrote about that:

Prevention of electronic vote switching fraud

The best way of preventing this kind of election fraud is to get rid of DRE machines. Hand counted paper ballots and optical scan machines have both been shown to be much less susceptible to breakdown, as well as much less susceptible to fraud.

But if DRE machines are to be used, every effort must be made to guard against fraud. Three general principles stand out as being crucially important:

1) First, the idea that “proprietary” voting machines which count our votes using secret (i.e., not accessible to the public) software have any place in a democracy must be vigorously fought.

2) Secondly, any DRE machine that counts our votes must be accompanied by a reliable paper trail that will facilitate a recount if needed;

3) Thirdly, laws must be instituted that will ensure that recounts will be available whenever controversy exists over the results of an election, and that those recounts will be conducted in a fair and transparent manner, with the requesting party given the choice of which precincts to select for the initial recount.

4) Fourthly, make sure that tamper resistant seals are covering the slot for the voter access card and that their numbers match the number on the chief election judges' sheet. If it doesn't, request that the machine be taken out of service.

Finally, see Section XII of this report, sponsored by the DNC, on how to prevent election fraud with the use of DRE machines.

[Febble]

28. Excellent list

but random manual recounts/audits need to be mandatory, not merely possible in the event of controversy.

[Morgana LaFey]

24. My needs assessment doesn't fit within your request

but I'm gonna give it to you anyway. In my heart I am convinced that whatever other "reforms" are needed, there are two absolutely ESSENTIAL (sine qua non) things that are needed:

1. A Constitutional Amendment
...giving every citizen the Right to Vote. That way, no judge can ever shrug his or her shoulders and say, "Uh, sorry, no skin off my nose. There's no Right to Vote in the Constitution." That way, the sins of fooling with people's right to vote (say, in various vote suppression schemes, or ballot tampering, or ballot stuffing, or phone jamming, or leafletting with intimidating lies, or posting intimidating state cops in black precincts, or DRE rigging, or ____you name it_____ ) would be SERIOUS offenses and people and organizations could get sued out of their minds (and ALL of their wealth) for doing any of it. That might also encourage state leges to get serious about punishments for various election fraud schemes. Right now, too many people on BOTh sides of the aisle seem to not think all that much needs to be done, as if it's no problem (tho one side knows it is, but it benefits them the most, it seems).

2. Model Legislation at the state level that is iron-clad protection agaimst fraud. We need the best and brightest -- including computer geeks -- to sit down and figure out EXACTLY what mechanisms and process to have in place in each state (for implementation at the very local level and above) to minimize fraud. A complete and total "best practices" set of legislation.

Because one of the problems right now is that the state leges have enacted some bizarre legislation -- at the behest, usually, of the voting machine folks and their lobbyists. What is the definition of a legal ballot? Are the "paper trails" going to be admissible, or not? How long after an election does any candidate have to ask for a recount? What kinds of results can trigger -- or allow -- a recount? You know that it takes a while to figure out the metrics of these fancy voting machine results. The trend is to SHORTEN the time after election for requests for recounts. Why can't citizens ask for a recount (or can they)? Wht should be the chain of custody for any electronic materials -- cards, machines, etc.? On and on. BEST PRACTICES and minimum standards, and making it easy to get it right or make it right afterwards, as necessary.

[Land Shark]

31. still can be needs of course, even tho outside scope of this request... Thanks

[Febble]

33. Excellent!

I didn't know you guys didn't have the right to vote. Come to think of it, I'm not sure we do.... Better check.

[mopinko]

25. take the day off. work the polls.

every able citizen of this country should feel an obligation to be a poll worker, or watcher, at least once in their lives. dr dean likes to say that just voting does not get you a good grade in democracy. if you want an A, you have to run for office yourself. i say, if you want a C, put in that long day at least once. i know, it's hard for some people to get the day off. we ought to have a right to time off, just like we do for jury duty. it ought to work pretty much the same.
this goes double for dems who live in deep red country. i wonder how many crimes were prevented on nov 7 because pissed off real dems replaced phony dems in the polls. (in a sane world, i would be compelled to recommend the reverse, but fuck them, they can recruit their own.)

[kster]

26. With the Media and Politicians silence about

the secret vote counting machines, its hard to get people to believe there is a problem, but heres a couple ideas

A bumper sticker campaign like "Got Milk" or in ER terms "Did you SEE Your Vote Count" something that will stick.

Seminars all over the country (like the time share gimmicks) hear us out for prizes and gifts.

College and High School "Can Americas vote counting machines be manipulated" Essay Contest for prizes and/or gifts, because once the kids start reading into it, the parents will hear about it, I can personally guarantee that. :)

[Patsy Stone]

27. Election Reform

is a part of a greater whole: helping people understand the beauty of their democratic republic and encouraging them to get involved in the process of voting. People need to understand why voting is important. Why doesn't everyone vote?

If you're speaking to the people who do vote, then I would suggest constant exposure of the problem. Encouraging local election organizations to keep it active in the public's mind during "the down time" between elections so the issue doesn't flounder until it's too late to do anything because the next cycle is approaching. Newspaper coverage, local news coverage.

Also, as someone said above, part of it is that people do not know how small the margins are. This goes back to both of the points I just listed (how important exercising the franchise is and education about the issue itself), but it is a very important fact. I just keep using Florida's 537 vote difference in 2000 as an example.

Also, although this is more of a concentrated PR campaign of sorts, but things tend to stick if they're funny and repeated. For example, one ad showing someone voting on a DRE for Coke but getting a Pepsi would make a huge impression on the public.

[eomer]

30. A very short list.

1. Be a citizen observer for every election (or at least the major biennial ones)
   
2. Keep working on getting the word out
   
3. Keep trying to catch them in the act
   

If we can accomplish (3) then that will shorten (2) from a multi-year slog into an overnight revelation.

[groovedaddy]

32. Hold Public forums

Invite the people in charge of running elections, the media and the public. Issue press releases prior to and after the event. If you can land a high profile "moderator" all the better. Ask tough questions and don't settle for lame answers.

[Contrite]

34. Personally, I've been pestering the s***t out of local politicos.

I have personally spam-mailed every state representative. I have written numerous letters to the AG (and got numerous responses). I am in direct communication with our new (Democratic, progressive) Secretary of State. I send these people articles. I keep them informed.

My point? Work locally. Get the attention of your representatives. Hammer them with information. Get them to change the laws. If they won't listen, work with your local city council, your neighborhood/community council to bring forward a referendum.