Election Irregularities Surfacing Re: California's Proposition 8

[ellius101]

"This discrepancy should be ringing alarm bells. Something doesn't add up".

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/


Election Irregularities Surfacing Re: California's Proposition 8!
Exit Poll Shows DEFEAT of Same-Sex Marriage Ban!
Volunteers Needed NOW to Monitor Post-Election Procedures
See end of article for info re: volunteer training
via telephone conference call
Link Below to Flyer: Please Print and Circulate at Saturday's Protests!

The Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender (GLBT) Community and its supporters nationwide are mourning and organizing in the wake of last week's announced 52-48% passage of Proposition 8, which eliminates the rights of same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. But an accurate count of the votes may not yet have occurred, according to early indications.

The integrity of an election takes time to investigate, and it's far too early to draw conclusions. However, consider the following:

Around the world, exit polls are used to determine the need for investigation of elections. In the U.S., the National Exit Poll (NEP, also known as Edison/Mitofsky) now adjusts results to match vote counts before issuing its final polling numbers. Election Defense Alliance downloaded NEP numbers from the internet on election night, however, before poll results were changed to match the official vote count.

This is the exit poll from early in the evening of election night. There were 2,168 respondents, and they break down as follows (a "yes" vote is a vote against same-sex marriage):

Males:
Yes on Prop 8, 48%
No on Prop 8, 52%

Females:
Yes on Prop 8, 48%
No on Prop 8, 52%

View actual screen capture

This is the exit poll from later in the evening. There were 2,240 respondents -- 72 more respondents than in the earlier poll -- and they break down in a very different way:

Males:
Yes on Prop 8, 53%
No on Prop 8, 47%

Females:
Yes on Prop 8, 52%
No on Prop 8, 48%

View actual screen capture

This discrepancy should be ringing alarm bells. Something doesn't add up.

[Peace Patriot]

1. We won't have our democracy back until we rid ourselves of 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting!

:patriot:

[NorthCarolina]

2. Will we ever be able to eliminate these damn vote flipping EVM's?

[bluedawg12]

3. Not all of the votes are counted?!

Further indications of problems with the vote count are already coming in from multiple sources, including incident reports from voters and election observers. Among these are indications that disenfranchisement targeting communities likely to have a high proportion of 'no' votes on Proposition 8 led to huge numbers of provisional ballots being cast. Because each provisional ballot must be individually determined to be qualified before counting, hundreds of thousands throughout the state remain uncounted to date.

[formercia]

4. That's why they needed the phony republican voter registrations

so that when they flipped the votes, the GOP could argue they had the voters to cover the flipped votes.

[bluedawg12]

5. These people (rw) are so powerful

that they took two top of ticket Pres elections.

PHate8 is probably childs play for them.

[emlev]

6. SIGN UP FOR VOLUNTEER TRAINING TO WORK ON THIS!

Please read. This is important. We must act now to make sure all votes are counted and counted accurately!

* Election integrity experts say irregularities are beginning to surface with the Prop. 8 vote count.
* People are needed in every county immediately to observe the post-election auditing processes.
* Training will be provided by telephone conference call Sunday, November 16 at 4:00 p.m. Advance sign-up for this free training is required.
* Help spread the word by forwarding this email.


The details:

Why question the announced results of the Prop 8 election?

* National Exit Poll showed Prop 8 LOSING before results were adjusted to match vote totals.
(Exit polls are used worldwide to detect election problems.)
* Targeted purging of voters may mean a huge number of "no" votes on Prop 8 are among hundreds of thousands of votes not yet counted. (See www.sos.ca.gov)
* Collected incident reports from voters and election observers indicate problems that need immediate investigation.
* Nearly all of California's votes (not just for Proposition 8, but for everything) are counted by computers that are known to count incorrectly and are vulnerable to both accidental and intentional problems that can affect vote counts.
* For more details, click this link.

Does this mean Proposition 8 was really defeated?

It's way too early to make any guesses about that. The early indications that the vote count may not be accurate only tell us that we must ask questions and seek the answers.

What needs to be done?

There's an immediate need for volunteers in all California counties to observe the processes that happen after an election. Some of the processes have happened already and the work continues daily, so we need to act fast.

These tasks aren't familiar to most people, so Velvet Revolution has set up a training for people who want to volunteer. The training will be held by telephone conference call on Sunday, November 16 at 4:00 p.m. More details are below.

What good does monitoring do?

Community election monitoring is a deterrent to some nefarious activity. Just the knowledge that they are being watched, especially being watched by a knowledgeable observer, can deter people from illegal activity. While most election officials and their staffs are honest, committed workers, the potential for corruption exists.

Monitoring is a deterrent to sloppy behavior. Elections officials and poll workers will be more vigilant knowing they are being watched and their mistakes could be publicized.

Monitors sometimes catch errors that can be corrected immediately by elections officials.

Information gathered can be used to improve future elections.
Monitors can make incident reports to election protection hotlines such as 1 (866) OUR-VOTE, adding their findings to thousands of comments aggregated and analyzed for patterns of election anomalies.
Community monitoring efforts can provide the basis for challenges to elections, including recounts initiated by the public or by candidates.

(See this link for more information about election monitoring.)

Who can participate in the training?

Anyone in California who is willing and able to volunteer at least four hours (preferably significantly more) over the next couple of weeks.

How does the telephone training work?

You sign up by sending email (see below). You will receive the call-in instructions by email. At 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, you follow those instructions to call in to the conference call. You'll be on the call with a trainer, a facilitator, and other volunteers. You will be able to ask questions. You'll also receive an information packet by email with additional training materials. We are not charging for this training. However, your phone company will charge you its regular long distance charges for the call. Please call from a land line if possible. We expect the training to be over by 5:30.

What if I want to volunteer and can't attend the training?

Email us as below, and tell us you can't attend. We will be recording the training and can make that recording available to you to listen at your convenience.

Who is sponsoring and conducting the training?

The training is a project of the Velvet Revolution Election Protection Strike Force, an election integrity organization. VR's Emily Levy will facilitate the training call. The trainer is Tom Courbat of SAVE R VOTE, an experienced election monitor from Riverside Co.

How do I sign up?
Click on the sign up link at the bottom of http://www.velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/2008/11/exit_poll_showed_californias_p.html">this blog item.

Please circulate this to anyone you think might be interested.

Emily Levy
Velvet Revolution Election Protection Strike Force

[Phredicles]

7. How much of California uses mechanized balloting?

I've lived in LA County for 14 years, and I've always voted with paper ballots.

This is doubly upsetting: In addition to the unjust outcome, up to this point electoral fraud was something that happened in other states. I'll want to keep a sharp eye on this.

[Phredicles]

8. Kick; whose jurisdictiojn does this fall under, the CA Sec'y of State?

There needs to be an investigation.

[Phredicles]

9. Further kickage; am I the only one who sees this as a big deal,

or at least potentially so?

[LeftCoast]

10. Unfortunately exit polling is unreliable and shouldn't be used as evidence of fraud

The assumption you're making is that a) they're sampling a truly random sample of voters and b) that those voters would tell the truth about how they vote. Discussion of the Bradley Effect though, should cause us to doubt that everyone is always honest in polling questions about controversial issues.