On this Monday before Election Day, we thought we'd send you this, from a
report about Ohio's May 2006 primary, which clearly illustrates why your
help with poll closing observation is so important:
"In at least 79 precincts the number of voters who signed the poll books
didn't match the number of ballots cast. At least eight precincts had more
ballots cast than registered voters. Because some polling places served
several precincts, some of the discrepancies are explained by voters being
directed to the wrong machines, an error that did not result in uncounted
votes. But even when investigators tallied ballots and signatures for all
precincts in a polling place, 15 locations still had mismatches. In one case
investigators found 342 more voters than ballots."
This kind of scrutiny brings change. It also sometimes uncovers problems
that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. The Miami-Dade Election Reform
Coalition's report on its 2004 poll closing observations, "Get It Right the
First Time"
<
http://www.reformcoalition.org/ressources/GetItRightTheFirstTime.pdf%5D>
http://www.reformcoalition.org/ressources/GetItRightTheFirstTime.pdf%5D,
revealed that the vote totals from one machine had been uploaded three times
into the certified count. In Miami-Dade, a paperless electronic voting
county, ballot accounting is now recognized as an important part of the poll
closing process.
Those of you planning to observe the poll closing process and how ballots
are accounted for at the end of the day will make a big difference! If you
have not yet looked at the Poll-Closing / Ballot Accounting Questionnaire,
it's available for download, along with the rest of our questionnaires, at:
<
http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6390>
http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6390
--keep in mind
that these tools were designed to augment other observation efforts.
If you are new to the project, please take a look at our "Getting Started,
Getting Help" document, which has links and info to help you:
<
https://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6413>
https://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6413.
If you have questions or concerns, please join us this afternoon for an
Election Transparency Project Q & A conference call:
Monday, November 6th, 5:00 p.m. Pacific / 8:00 p.m. Eastern
To join the call, just dial toll-free from any phone 1-877-567-1262, and
then enter the pass code 601198.
You can also join our project discussion list,
<mailto:
watchthevote@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
watchthevote@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, by
going to <
http://vevo.verifiedvoting.org/mailman/listinfo/watchthevote>
http://vevo.verifiedvoting.org/mailman/listinfo/watchthevote
.
As always, if you have any questions, or want to receive future mailings
related to the Election Transparency Project just send an e-mail to
<mailto:
observer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
observer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Thanks for helping to make our democracy stronger!
The Verified Voting Team
###
Courtenay Strickland Bhatia
President, Verified Voting
1550 Bryant St., Suite 855
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-487-2255 work
415-235-0126 cell
<
http://www.verifiedvoting.org>
http://www.verifiedvoting.orgEvery vote must count as cast.