Voter Protection

[MikeMc]

Maybe I'm out of sync with the website, and this info is readily available. But I'd like to post two 'election protection' phone numbers anyway, because I haven't seen them prominently displayed.

1-866-MY VOTE 1

1-866-OUR VOTE

Also, the League of Women Voters site:

http://www.vote411.org/



In 2008, my mom moved from PA to New Mexico. NM is a state that allegedly voted Repug in '04, by an < 6000 vote majority. She was issued an absentee ballot, without requesting one, before the '08 presidential vote. Elections officials in Sandoval County told her to throw it out, don't worry about it, even though it was personalized and specifically registered to her.

She found this disturbing, so she went to an early voting polling place, an option not available here in Pennsylvania, even today. The polling officials wouldn't let her vote, because she 'had an absentee ballot', thought other election officials had previously made her throw the (unrequested) ballot in the trash.

My mom called both numbers above, and informed vote411, and she was allowed to vote (early vote, a week before election).

If anyone has trouble voting this election, call both numbers and inform the LWV.

[EFerrari]

1. K&R

[MikeMc]

2. Thanks

Archie: Winners? Like North Vietnam?
Otto: That was a tie!

[Winterblues]

3. The very best voter protection is "Vote By Mail" nation wide

Democrats need to wake up on this issue if they ever want to be in a position of power again..

[MikeMc]

4. Paper ballots at the polls are best, it seems.

Link to Bev Harris's organization, Black Box Voting:

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

Excerpt:

"(USA) 10/10 - VOTE BY MAIL PUTS NOVEMBER ELECTION AT HIGH RISK - * Due to length, the story on convicted felons Jeff Dean and John Elder and their vote-by-mail involvement has been moved here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/81240.html

WHY VOTE BY MAIL IS HIGH RISK

Vote-by-mail is the second highest risk method of voting. It conceals three of the four crucial processes. (Internet voting, illegal in most states, is the highest risk form of voting because it conceals all four essential election processes from the public.)

PERMISSION TO EXERPT OR REPRINT GRANTED, WITH LINK TO BLACK BOX VOTING

...

THE FOUR CRUCIAL PROCESSES ARE:
1) Who can vote (the voter list)
2) Who did vote (the pollbook, or participating voter list)
3) Whether votes counted were the votes cast (chain of custody)
4) Whether counting was accurate (public can see and authenticate counting)

Vote by mail conceals #2, #3, and usually #4 from the public. "


I appreciate your response, Winter, but if anyone looks at Bev Harris's info, Brad Blog, Mark Crispin Miller and Congressman Conyers, Fitrakis and Wasserman at Freepress.org, (etc.), all election protection activists come to the conclusion that there needs to be a paper ballot, at the polls (for most voters, not the infirm or absentee), and we need a chain of custody and a verifiably accurate count.