Reply #56: The best things for the everyday voter to do. [View All]

Things the "average voter" can do. This doesn't include all the activist things you can do, like voting early and then going to other states where there have been troubles before, writing policy makers, or volunteering as a poll watcher. This is just what you can do as an individual, with little or no committment, and these things you should encourage all your friends to do.

1) Vote in local elections and primaries to make sure your name doesn't get thrown out of the books. Build up a voting history for yourself. Immediately deal with any name changes, changes of address, etc. with the town clerk, and try to do so in time to test your registration by voting in a local/primary election.

2) Vote by paper ballot if you can and you are in a precinct where there are DREs or where the punchcard/opscan/etc results were iffy. Apply for the paper ballot as early as you can, and if you don't have it two weeks before the election, start complaining.

3) If you have any problem or suspect anything wrong, don't just report it to the BOE, don't just post it on DU or on some small blog. Do those things. But mostly report it to as many of the major voter protection groups as you can find. It's been estimated we only have 1/100th of the complaints that were made to poll workers on file.

4) Know what the correct procedure for everything is -- signing in voters, assigning party ballots, collecting absentee ballots, etc. If any town official, or the pollworkers on election day, are doing something wrong, tell them, and then go back home and report them, whether or not they say they will fix it. A voter protection group can probably tell you what the procedure at your site will be.

5) Vote a complete ballot, unless you really really cannot stand all the available candidates, and be very careful to do everything right. If you really want to undervote, do it by voting a write-in. Then check the results to make sure your write-in appeared.

6) Above all else, if there is a voter verified ballot you can look at before casting it, doublecheck it. If not, make very, very sure that your votes are correct on any summary screens.

7) When waiting in line to vote, talk to the people next to you about how you are going to report any problems. Don't talk about partisan matters, just how you don't trust the system. They may think you are paranoid, but when they get into the booth, they'll be thinking about what you said nonetheless.

8) Before the election, record any calls you get about where or when to vote on your answering machine. Try to get a caller ID and take notes if you take the call in person. Have a camera ready by the door, and if someone comes by and knocks on your door, ask them to take their picture with you. Or if they are obviously snakey, take their picture anyway. If you feel up to it, follow them until they get into a car and take the license plate number.

9) Be on the alert for posters or fliers that give out wrong voter information. Take a picture of them or anyone distributing them, then tear them down and keep them as evidence.

10) Take a picture of the lawn signs on your street, especially if you live in a small precinct. Enough pictures from the same precinct can be convincing evidence that the vote count isn't right. Do something to your own lawn sign that makes life miserable to anyone who steals it.

11) If you are approached by an exit poller or called for a telephone poll, take the survey, and answer all questions honestly.

12) If you are out of town for any amount of time before the election, have family or a neighbor check your mail regularly, and have them open and read to you anything election related.