Although the daunting prospect of electronic voting as well as organized voter suppression looms on the eve of the 2006 election, there are still a great many things that we individuals can do to protect the vote.
If you haven't already - Take Tomorrow Off From Work and plan to spend all day at the Polls.
As a citizen it is your right to be able to watch your Democracy and progress. the only way that the vote can be tampered with or stolen is when no one is looking.
Go to the Polls and keep Watch on our Democracy, but most importantly - you must document what you see!
Depending on the rules in your state, some of the details may vary slightly - but in general there is no reason why you can not go to your local voting place and simply watch.
Here are some simple rules of thumb and suggestions.
- Bring a Lunch.
Bring a Camera (preferably video).
Bring a Phone.
Bring a Notepad.
Bring a portable radio with earphones so you can hear the local and nation news without disturbing others.
Do NOT discuss preferences on the ballots measure or specific races while within 40-100 ft (depending on the state) of the polling place. That is Electioneering and is prohibited by law. Make note and document anyone else you see violating this law.
Poll workers should be courteous and helpful. They should not object to your watching as long as you don't interfere with their work or the voters.
Make a note of excessive delays or lines, note the precinct and average wait times.
As the day progresses Read and Review the Street Index, which should be updated each hour by poll workers to indicate which persons in the precinct have already voted and posted near the entrance. This can used for last-minute GOTV as the index should include the name, address, phone number and party affiliation of each registered voter. If you have a phone (tip #2 above) you can call any voter and remind them of the election and ask them if they plan to vote today, but you can not suggest to them how they should vote while in the polling place. Some people might be put-off by a cold-calling of this type (even if they aren't already getting robo-bombed) - so use your best judgement and always be courteous.
Pay attention to voter ID challenges. (I'm a poll-worker in California so I can speak to their laws primarily, and in California you do not need ID to vote as long as your are listed in the Roster as an "Active" Voter - one who has voted at least once during the past two Presidential election cycles. If you have not, you should be listed as an "Inactive" voter and you still don't need ID, only to verify your name and address - then recite a voter oath. New Voters who've recently registered must show ID - or proof of address - if they can't they can still vote provisionally.
Pay attention to how and when voters are shunted toward provisional ballots. Voters Should Not Be Harrassed The rules may vary from state to state, but generally provisional ballots should only be issued for people who are a) New without ID or b) Voting outside their normal precinct. Provisional voters should be given a receipt which tells them that they can call a number or check a website 30 days after the election to verify that their vote was or wasn't counted.
Each voter should sign the roster individually. If someone comes to the poll and finds that someone else has already signed their slot on the roster - that's not a good sign. Document it.
Document any reports of "Vote Flipping" with Electronic Vote Machines.
Document, if you can, the details of votes which have been rejected by Ballot Readers. (Units made by ES&S have been distributed to all 5000 precincts in LA.) For this election the readers will not be counting the votes, only checking them for errors - votes missing or overvotes - and generating a report. The voter should have the option to override the error report if they don't care about those particular races , or redo their ballot to fix any problems. The Ballot Readers I've seen Do not have Memory Cards, but they do have an Ethernet Cable Port which should be covered by a piece of security tape. If you can, ensure sure that this tape has not been tampered with in order to hide unauthorized access to the machine's internals.
New Audio Booths are now available which function like an automatic phone system and allows people who may be visually impaired, unable to read or not speak english to vote. These Audio Booths are controlled by through the Ballot Reader device and will print their own ballots once the voter has completed making their selections. Unfortunately these devices have a limit of only 25 ballots - one of which is automatically printed when the device is booted - so only 24 persons per precinct will be able to use this device.
If you see questionable activity and don't have a camera of your own you can contact 1-866-OUR-VOTE which is national hotline associated with Video the Vote.org who may be able to send a voluanteer camera crew out depending on your location.
If you do have a Camera you can upload your video and observations to forums like this one, Youtube or Oped News.com
Other suggestions welcome...
Vyan
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