Election Protection Update

Written by: Joshua Smith on Sep 26, 2006 4:05 PM EDT

Linked to groups: MidMichigan Democracy for America

Forwarded From Bill Rittenberg:

>From: "Bruce Fealk"
>To: "[MERA News]"
>Subject: MERA-News BBV One-on-One: Michigan citizens gather evidence,
>expose elections issues
>Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:14:48 -0400
>
>Permission to excerpt or reprint granted, with link to
>www.blackboxvoting.org...
>
>America is not going to have election problems solved in November. It's
>going to be up to citizens to make the case. Black Box Voting is urging
>citizens to make November 2006 the biggest grass roots evidence gathering
>action in history. EVIDENCE = videotape, audio, photos and public records.
>Stories are not evidence.
>
>CITIZEN EVIDENCE UPDATE FROM ALLEGAN COUNTY, MICHIGAN:
>
>Our "One-on-One" section on the Web is popular, but the most active
>individual work we've been doing is with an underground army of citizens who
>consult with us privately via e-mail and phone. These extraordinary citizens
>are on the front lines, working to put elections oversight back into the
>hands of the citizenry where it belongs. The next several lead stories at
>Black Box Voting will feature their achievements so far. We encourage you to
>borrow ideas and add your own imagination to your own local elections
>oversight.
>
>LET'S TAKE A FRONT LINES LOOK at Tool Kit Module 7 - Hold your government
>accountable in action:
>www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit-a...
>
>Neva Tice of Pullman, Michigan, is a citizen who spoke up at an Allegan
>County Board of Commissioners meeting on Mar. 9, 2006 in an effort to help
>prevent landfill permits from being issued. Nothing in the record indicates
>she was successful, but that didn't stop her from taking an active role in
>Lee Township when she noticed a $148,000 annual contract that appeared to be
>"perpetual." Lee Township citizens hadn't voted on it. She didn't just
>complain about it -- she led a successful recall of two public officials!
>
>Tice led a group of citizens who gathered enough signatures to seek a recall
>of all five members of the Lee Township Board.
>
>WHO CHECKS TO SEE THAT PUBLIC OFFICIALS ARE FOLLOWING THEIR OWN RULES? What
>can you do if they ignore the rules? Citizens are taking the initiative to
>make a case - with proof - by themselves, sometimes as lone individuals.
>Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
>
>While she was at it, Tice suggested that replacement board members might be
>representative of more diverse constituencies in the community. Maybe that
>will work - as it stands now, two board members were successfully recalled
>and may be up for replacement.
>
>There are currently 2,049 eligible voters in Lee Township. The minimum
>number of signatures required to trigger a recall election was 144; Neva
>Tice and her organizers soon turned in 179 petitions. When the election was
>held Aug. 8, two board members were recalled, three were not.
>
>CITIZEN OVERSIGHT UNCOVERS ISSUES
>
>Local citizens decided to get involved in overseeing the elections process
>itself: Pat Foster from nearby Ganges Township filed for a recount, citing
>irregularities.
>
>Among the issues spotted by vigilant citizens: They allege that unqualified
>voters actually voted, that election challengers received hostile treatment
>by the election workers, there was an attempt to close the polls early and
>that a sample ballot actually showed people how to vote. Why did they have
>challengers? Because, they say, there are a lot of vacation homes in the
>rural Lee Township area, and those who live elsewhere can't vote in Lee
>Township while visiting second homes there.
>
>Some Lee Township citizens contend that the township board is made up of
>affluent property owners, without much representation for senior citizens
>and the local Hispanic populations.
>
>Several Michigan citizens showed up for the recount, and following advice in
>the Black Box Voting Tool Kit, had video cameras rolling and digital cameras
>clicking away. These Michigan citizens are going to take you right into the
>recount room for a rare glimpse of the recount process in action.
>
>The evidence collected by these extraordinary citizens provides surprisingly
>powerful evidence that at least in this case, a recount using hand-counted
>paper ballots would have been faster, easier, and less expensive.
>
>OBSERVATIONS
>
>Citizen oversight is going to take a little getting used to in Lee Township.
>Several times when citizens read the law to elections officials, they were
>met with stony silence.
>
>In Lee Township, citizens have the perfect response to public officials who
>refuse to answer questions: Provide a pregnant pause, videotape, and
>politely say thank you.
>
>Now watch this 2-minute video clip from Michigan:
>Ignoring Michigan Election Law Act 116 of 1954 168.874 Sec. 874 (3)
>www.bbvdocs.org/videos/right-to-...
>
>followed by this one:
>
>3-minute clip: Refusing to answer questions about Michigan Election Law Act
>116 of 1954 168.871 Sec. 871 (6)(a-d)
>www.bbvdocs.org/videos/manual-re...
>
>Always a polite "Thank you" when the public official behaved
>nonresponsively.
>
>BALLOT DUPLICATION
>
>Although Michigan law requires election officials to allow candidates and
>interested parties in a recount to view every ballot, the only ballots
>citizens were allowed to see were those the Diebold optical scan voting
>machines rejected. The procedure in Michigan, as in many other
>jurisdictions, is for elections workers to create new ballots when the
>machine cannot read them. Few citizens have had a chance to see ballot
>duplication, which is shown in the next short video clip.
>
>Here are two ballots that were apparently duplicated and enhanced so that
>they could be read by the machine. It is unclear how elections officials
>divined voter intent. What stands out to us is the amount of time this
>procedure takes. It is not necessary if you hand-count the ballots.
>
>The ballot duplication process
>www.bbvdocs.org/videos/ballot-du...
>
>HAND COUNTS VS. MACHINE COUNTS
>
>The New Hampshire hand recount method involves two steps: A "sort and stack"
>step where ballots are sorted and stacked - applied to this case, that would
>mean sorting the "yes" votes out from the "no" votes and creating two
>stacks. The second step is to count and record the number of votes in each
>stack. (Three videos are available pertaining to New Hampshire hand counting
>and election oversight tactics:
>www.democracyfornewhampshire.com... )
>
>Now watch the following video clips from the Michigan recount and ask
>yourself how this process could possibly be faster than hand counting. They
>are feeding the ballots through the optical scan machine one by one, a
>process that appears to take longer than sort and stack would take.
>
>Would it be faster to feed ballots one by one or hand count?
>www.bbvdocs.org/videos/one-by-on...
>
>The machine sometimes jams, requiring the election official to dislodge the
>machine from the ballot box, open the back of the ballot box, and pull out
>the ballots. Not only does this take extra time, but since no one else is
>allowed to see what is in the black ballot box, it presents chain of custody
>issues as well. Could ballots be swapped? And how much extra time does this
>process take? Wouldn't hand-counting this recount in public be both faster
>and more observable?
>
>Stuck ballots and nontransparency in ballot handling
>www.bbvdocs.org/videos/ballot-ja...
>
>MICHIGAN LAW STATES: "The candidates or persons interested in the ballot
>question, their counsel, watchers, and talliers shall be allowed to observe
>each ballot as it is called and to take notes as they desire for their own
>records. The board of canvassers shall identify by an exhibit number a
>ballot counted or rejected under protest, keep a record of the protest, and
>proceed as required under section 871a.
>
>These Michigan citizens report that they were not allowed to observe each
>ballot. In addition, there seems to be some confusion about absentee
>ballots. Citizens correctly point out that the mail-in ballots will have
>fold lines, but are rebuffed when they ask to see or count the number of
>folded ballots.
>
>No you can't see the absentee ballots
>www.bbvdocs.org/videos/absentee....
>
>These citizens have also been communicating with Michigan college students,
>who are getting more and more interested in election oversight. A key issue
>for college students is emerging -- incorrect information is being provided
>by unknown parties about ID requirements to vote. Students nationwide are
>now being urged to take a very close look at eligibility and poll location
>issues.
>
>MORE ONE-ON-ONE NEWS
>
>I met with citizens in AUSTIN, TEXAS this weekend. What a dynamic bunch! As
>one of them said when we discussed the importance of the "swarm" method --
>having thousands of individuals using their own common sense, rather than a
>top-down model telling election reformers to march in order -- "A thousand
>imaginations is a powerful thing."
>
>Well, the imaginations in Austin are oustanding. In Texas, the Secretary of
>State has apparently got a bus going around the state shilling for
>electronic voting. The bus pulls up to various cities and out comes the dog
>and phony show. (Okay, the typo is a Freudian slip. I think I'll leave it
>there.)
>
>Enter the imaginations of Vote Rescue, the Austin citizens group working on
>election oversight. They're marshalling a Volkswagon bus to follow the bus.
>Add to this the "Wheel of Glitches" (based on the Wheel of Fortune prop) --
>spin it and see where YOUR vote goes!
>Citizens near Austin are encouraged to get involved:
>www.voterescue.org...
>
>And in DUPAGE COUNTY, ILLINOIS, one of Black Box Voting's top two picks for
>WORST PLACES TO VOTE IN AMERICA, get this:
>
>DuPage County has apparently issued a decree that counting the votes is not
>a public meeting, as there is no quorum, so they will prohibit any video,
>audio, or any recording of any kind of any part of the vote counting. We'll
>have more coming up on DuPage County.
>
>In case you're wondering, the other contender for the top two WORST PLACES
>TO VOTE IN AMERICA is Riverside County, California.
>
>UPCOMING EVENTS:
>
>I'll be in Cleveland on Friday Sept. 29 for the WeCount Conference to speak
>to local citizens about election reform and how to use the Tool Kit to
>gather evidence. Other speakers include Mark Crispin Miller, Bob Fitrakis,
>Steve Freeman, Richard Hayes Phillips, Greg Coleridge, Harvey Wasserman, Ron
>Baiman, Bob Koehler, Jonathan Simon, Bruce O'Dell, Kathy Dopp, Shaun Tucker,
>Tony Minor, Victoria Lovegren, and many more.
>
>For more information on the WeCount Conference, go to:
>www.ohiovigilance.org/Conference...
>
>On Saturday Sept. 30, I'll be in Atlanta at a press conference with Cynthia
>McKinney to discuss findings from the July 18 and August 8 elections.
>
>On Sunday Oct. 1, I'll be in Columbus Ohio for a workshop to introduce local
>citizens and also newcomers to the issue to the problems and how to use the
>Tool Kit. 1:30 to 6 PM
>German Village Meeting Haus; 588 South 3rd. St. (off E. willow St.)
>
>On Monday-Thurs., I'll be in New York in preparation for the new HBO
>documentary, Hacking Democracy, which is scheduled to air Nov. 2.
>
>Plan on having a House Party on Nov. 2 at a home with HBO. Pass out the
>Citizens Tool Kit Modules for how to watch the voting and how to watch the
>counting.
>
>I haven't seen it yet, but this film is reportedly a powerful emotional
>experience. Filmed by the British filmmakers who made Votergate, the new
>film -- Hacking Democracy -- includes rare footage of machines flipping
>votes and more. Its visceral, in-the-field scenes shot on location are said
>to communicate effectively with those who are not already briefed on voting
>machine issues. This is the ideal time to reach out to NEW people who aren't
>at all aware of the issues yet. They're going to want to know what they can
>do: Be sure to come armed with the Tool Kit modules on monitoring the
>election. Give them something to do and put them right to work.
>
>For more help on this, download the House Party Tool Kit:
>www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit-h...
>
>-- Keep up the good work!
>
>Bev Harris
>Founder
>Black Box Voting
>
># # # # #
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>----
>
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Location: Lansing, MI 48864