From a New York Times editorial, 10/11/04:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/opinion/11mon1.html
MAKING VOTES COUNT
Be Part of the Solution
The 2000 mess in Florida was supposed to make the nation more
dedicated to ensuring that elections are fair, but it appears to have
had the opposite effect.
The chances of having an election in which all qualified citizens can
cast votes that are counted accurately seems more remote than ever.
Local election officials have been choosing electronic voting machines
of questionable reliability that do not produce a paper record.
Secretaries of state have been rejecting valid voter registration
forms on technicalities.
And rather than trying to attract supporters to their own candidates,
some political operatives are concentrating on disqualifying voters on
the other side.
As bad as things have been so far, the most vulnerable time for a
democracy is Election Day itself.
Polling places can be closed or moved at the last minute, with little
or no notice.
Registered voters arrive at polling places where they have been voting
for years, only to find that their names are not on the rolls.
"Ballot integrity" teams show up in heavily minority precincts, trying
to intimidate people into leaving without voting.
Voting machines fail to start up properly or develop troubling
glitches.
Ordinary Americans can, and should, become more involved in monitoring
the election process.
National and state political parties, and candidates at every level,
have a long tradition of sending out volunteer poll watchers to
observe the voting on Election Day.
These partisan poll watchers can play an important role in keeping
elections honest - though it is important that they be committed to
helping all citizens to vote, and not interfere with those who appear
most likely to support the opposition.
If there is a party or a candidate you feel strongly about, see if the
group will send you to observe the voting in a precinct where problems
are anticipated.
This year, for the first time, there is also a nationwide nonpartisan
election-monitoring program being run by a coalition of public
interest groups, which include the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights
Under Law and People for the American Way Foundation.
Election Protection (www .electionprotection2004.org) will be putting
volunteers on the ground in states like Florida and Ohio to distribute
voters' bills of rights and identify and report problems at the polls.
These groups say that volunteers will be trained to provide immediate
help to voters who have problems, and will also have access to roving
teams of lawyers, who will be prepared to go to court if necessary.
Volunteer lawyers are also being recruited to staff a toll-free
nationwide hot line (866-OUR-VOTE), answering questions and fielding
reports of trouble.
There is a special program coordinating law-student volunteers,
Impact2004 (www.impact2004.org), which is providing them with low-cost
transportation to the swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Verifiedvoting.org, a leading critic of electronic voting in its
current form, has started up an election protection program called
TechWatch (www .verifiedvoting.org/techwatch), which hopes to sign up
thousands of volunteers, particularly computer scientists.
TechWatch says its volunteers will observe the pre-election "logic and
accuracy" done on the voting machines, watch actual voting on Election
Day and then monitor the postelection vote counting.
The goal is not only to identify electronic voting problems in this
election, but to also start developing a database that can be used to
evaluate and improve electronic voting in the future.
We hope these election protection programs will have the added benefit
of helping to bring about more serious consequences for election
officials who flout the law.
There have been widespread reports from all parts of the country of
officials doing everything from insisting on photo ID from voters when
it is not required to installing uncertified software on electronic
voting machines.
If monitors witness these things firsthand, their reports could help
remove irresponsible election officials from their jobs, or even have
them criminally prosecuted.
In a well-run democracy, the government would be running elections of
such unquestioned integrity there would be no need for volunteer
projects like these.
But the mechanics of American democracy are deeply flawed, and
Congress, state governments and local elections officials have been
unwilling to do what is necessary to fix them.
If this election is going to be a fair and honest one, concerned
citizens will have to do their part to ensure that every vote counts.
______________________________________________________
Harry
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