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Re: Coloradoans for Voting Integrity Update; PRA

Most citizen groups fall into two camps: those who are either working on issues prior to the election (GOTV, prevent vote fraud and disenfranchisement, etc.) or after the election (sponsor new remediative legislation, sue the state over bad results from the election).

CFVI has worked to focus on preventive and proactive strategies, and our lawyer has advised us to focus instead on post-election challenges.

While I agree with Ralph and Evan that post-election press will be cruicial to help voters deal with the possible downfall of yet another election, and while the airwaves are cluttered with other ad campaigns, this does not negate the need to inform folks on what they can do to try to protect their vote and how to report instances of vote irregularities. This has to be our focus for now while we try to prevent as much harm as possible.

As volunteers who mostly have other full-time jobs, we are limited in what we can do to focus upon how to deal with post-election strategies. We do have access to a PR firm that is willing to help us with this, and we welcome anyone's input into some constructive brainstorming to design some guerilla tactics that could gain us press coverage.

We have been dismayed at the glaze-over or just plain dismissal of these vital issues by the press, or the downright manipulation of these issues into an open microphone for Donetta and the county officials to have their say instead. This is what has driven us to contemplate paying for the coverage we have been unable to obtain in rallies, interviews, letters to the editors, or call-ins to radio stations. We understand the need to be creative, and we welcome help from anyone willing to pitch in.

Use of the PR firm does require some funding, and we welcome your support at www.cfvi.org. We have no problem channeling some of this funding towards influencing our legislature or funding an initiative drive to push for direct citizen sponsorship of this issue, but again, with the single issue initiative limitations, it is darn near impossible to gain what we need (yes Ralph, we do need to fix this). I don't know who the PRA is, otherwise I would address that part too.

We continue to push for volunteers to step forward to protect the counting of absentee ballots (see recommendations by Al Kolwicz attached). We feel this is a large vulnerability in addition to use of DRE voting machines, and welcome folks to help with this.

Bob



From: Ralph Shnelvar <ralphs@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: ralphs@xxxxxxxxx
To: cvv-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Coloradoans for Voting Integrity Update; PRA
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 23:57:06 -0600

Dear Evan:

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:42:12 -0600 (MDT), you wrote:

>
>On Thu, 14 Oct 2004, Ralph Shnelvar wrote:
>
>> The right time to spend this money is the week *after* the election and the
>> weeks before the Colorado legislature goes into session.
>
>Amen to that.

Thank you, Evan.  It is clear that progressives and libertarians can work
together to pursue common interests.

>And, having gotten more press than any other person in
>Boulder including the mayor, in 1992, without ANY money, it isn't
>the money, it's the quality of the idea you have and how you advance
>it that counts.

The quality of ideas works in getting press in Boulder and other
"politically charged" communities.

In other places, it is money that is needed.  Since "hand counted ballots"
is a statewide issue, we're going to need lots and lots of money.  The
voting machine manufacturers are not going to roll over on this one.

We can diminish their objections (and the objections of the media) if we
allow political subdivisions to use electronic vote counting; as long as
they are followed up by hand counts.

>
>So what's your lawsuit, Ralph?

I'm keeping mum until it comes out.  I had hoped it would be ready by
tomorrow but the pleading just isn't ready.

My guess is that you will not be happy with the lawsuit.  I could be wrong,
though.

>
>Evan

Ralph Shnelvar