Reply #23: You Can All Do Something [View All]

Litigation is bringing some of the rats to light.

But many of the core problems have to be addressed at the local level.

Find out who controls the money for voting and voter registration systems in your area. Who has to approve the contracts. County council, etc.

Petition the council for an ordinance (whatever it takes in your area) to create a citizens advisory committee to oversee procedures, equipment purchases, and make recomendations.

This is not a committee that involves itself in the everyday affairs of auditors and election officials. It helps set the broader issues of types of equipment and how it will be used.

For example, most of the new voter registration systems are digital signature capable. You can make sure at the county and perhaps even state level, that there is always a requirement for a physical signature in a poll book- paper- at the polls. This is an important check and balance, so that you know how many people actually voted and are not dependent on some computer record for that information.

Same thing with voting systems. If the county has yet to purchase any, you can have input on what system it will be or set parameters of performance, like voter verified paper ballots, or mandating voter verified paper ballots from current systems.

At this level, you can even have input about what kind of RFP will got out for bids.

Local officials all have to get elected and most are accutely aware of public perception of how they do their job. Anyone denying citizen involvement, at this level in particular, is putting themselves in a precarious spot.

Keep the fight up at all levels but we must work on the base from the bottom up to effect lasting reform. And I'm beginning to think we need to be referring to the fight for honest, auditable, accountable elections as reform, because it's becoming painfully obvious the system has been sick for some time.

People have fought for the right to vote and that was a reform movement. Now, it becomes a nationwide fight for reform so that our votes are counted as cast. Everyone has been given only the first half of the equation (except of course in places like Florida). The right to vote becomes meaningless unless that vote is counted as cast.

Voting reform- to insure that every vote cast is counted as cast, to insure checks and balances at every point in our election process, from voter registration to voting.

But all of you have to get involved at the local level too. Become members of citizen committees. There is usually quite a bit of precedence for such entities, so it's easier to follow previous examples and you have a process you can follow.

These committees should have representatives from the parties, LWV, groups like Rainbow, local voting advocate groups, a rep for independent voters,.... you get the idea.

Do this YESTERDAY.

Control has been wrested from citizens at all levels. We can whack at the head of the dragon but unless we take away the underpinning, he'll keep reappearing. This is like a beast that keeps growing a new head. Fight on all levels but make sure that the foundation the beast depends on is eliminated.

YOU will have to do this.

If this happens across the country, well, ;-) it sure isn't what the opposition wants. Heaven forbid CITIZENS get involved in the voting process unless it is just casting ballots when told.

Go take back our representative democracy. We're supposed to elect our officials, not special interests.



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