We first ran this helpful list back in 2012. We’ve slightly updated it for the 2014 mid-term elections. Please share it around wherever you can…
First and foremost:
- If you have problems or see problems at the polls, be sure to report them to 866-OUR-VOTE, or at OurVoteLive.org!
- Catch any problems at the polls on photo or video? Upload it to YouTube and social sites, and tell us and the rest of the world about it!
- Be at the polls when they close and photograph and video tape the results tapes that are printed out from electronic systems. Results have a way of changing between the time they’re printed out at the close of polls and the time they show up on the web. Your photographic evidence could help save an election!
- Watching results on the web throughout the night? Take screenshots, save them as you go, and include a timestamp in the filename when you do. Those web results also have a way of changing, sometimes in the wrong direction, throughout the night. Your evidence could help save an election!
Vote on a Paper Ballot!
- In some places, it may be too late to vote on paper ballots. In others, know your rights and whether you are entitled to vote on a paper ballot if you wish, even if they try to direct you towards an electronic voting system. For example, in states like OH and CA every voter may vote on paper if they wish and if they know to ask for one. So (politely) demand a paper ballot! Check with your County Clerk or Sec. of State if you’re not sure.
- A touch-screen system with a little paper printout is NOT a paper ballot! Those paper printouts are never counted and your vote will be 100% unverifiable, like Barack Obama’s foolishly was in 2012. We made this short toon to explain that point quickly in 2008, so let’s roll it out once again…
If You Must Vote on Touch-Screen and Your Vote Flips…
- Try to capture it with your cell phone camera
- Call poll supervisors to observe the problem.
- Fill out a problem report.
- Refuse to vote on that machine.
- Request that the machine be taken out of service.
- Get the serial number of the machine if possible (may be difficult in some cases, but it’s usually on the back).
- Tell other voters in line which machine it was and that they should NOT vote on that machine!
- Report it to the county/town election office.
- Report it to the Secretary of State.
- Call local reporters and tell them the story.
- Call 866-OUR-VOTE and tell them.
- Contact bloggers and Election Integrity websites.
- Raise holy hell.
Other Useful Stuff to Keep in Mind
- Make sure you have the exact type of ID you’ll need to be able to vote before you leave for the polls. If you’re unsure what type of ID is needed, check with your Sec. of State or County Clerk. Google now has a new function to help. Search Google for “Voter ID [STATE NAME]”.
- Be prepared for long lines, particularly in states with close elections for Governor and U.S. Senate. Your vote definitely won’t get counted, much less accurately, if you leave the line before voting.
- If you’re challenged by a pollwatcher, take their picture with your cell phone, get their name, and then report it to 866-OUR-VOTE. But do NOT leave without voting, at the very least on a provisional ballot. But try to vote on a normal ballot, not a provisional ballot, if you possibly can.
- If you’re in line when the polls close, you still get to vote. Period.
- Help others stay in line. If you can offer water, folding chairs, a snack, encouragement, etc., to those in line fighting to cast their vote, you’re doing a great public service for what’s left of our democracy.
- Share this list and/or this blog item with others. Print it out, share it via social networks, etc. to help spread the word.
Election protection begins with you! Good luck! You may need it!
Got any more advice we should add to this list? Let us know in the Comments section…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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heh… a bit intellectually inconsistent for a blog to be so gung-ho about the sanctity of the vote and paranoid about our election process to be so dead-set against requiring voter ID.
What is it going to take to educate people like, Lennie Pike @1?
Republican laws which seek to limit the right to vote to a select number of state approved photo IDs have absolutely nothing to do with preventing voter fraud!
For those who haven’t done so, I would strongly urge reviewing the Truthout article that was authored by Brad Friedman and I pertaining to the dissenting opinion written by U.S. 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner, a Reagan appointee, in the Wisconsin photo ID case.
The only form of voter fraud that can be prevented by strict photo ID laws is in-person voter impersonation. Republicans who passed those laws in Wisconsin, Indiana and Pennsylvania were unable to point to a single case of such fraud having occurred within their states, ever! Nationwide, this low reward (one single vote), high risk (a felony conviction) form of fraud is so extraordinarily rare that its occurrence is “more than a dozen times less likely than being struck by lighting.”
While such laws do not and cannot prevent voter fraud, they have proved quite successful in suppressing the vote. But for a Supreme Court ruling permitting a permanent injunction to remain in place, some 300,000 perfectly legal, registered Wisconsin voters would have been disenfranchised in this election. Because the
Supreme Court stayed a permanent injunction against a deliberately discriminatory Republican photo ID law, 600,000 perfectly lawful Texas voters have been disenfranchised for this election.
As Judge Posner pointed out, “voter fraud” is a “mere fig leaf for efforts to disenfranchise voters likely to vote for the political party that does not control the state government.” Thus, Posner concluded:
There is no “intellectual inconsistency,” Mr. Pike. In asserting otherwise, you have simply demonstrated that you, and other people who have been duped by the GOP big lie — “voter fraud” — are misinformed.
The big lie is that these electronic machines are not a game changer.
With both D’s and R’s exploiting them.
The problem is the PEOPLE want someone to vote for who isn’t corrupt, and has the people’s interest not big corp’s. That doesn’t seem to be on the ballots this year. Same old same old is on the ballot.
That’s where the anger comes from.
Lies, deception, promises. These candidates are reaching a point where they ought to be legally bound by their own promises.
Not sure how much longer people are going to put up with all this full spectrum insane lights out agenda (health, monitary, war, food, water, land, rights, guns, spying.) Probably when the bohica monetary crash appears, but that’s my opinion.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5756082
voting lists missing in conn….can you find out if they are electronic lists?
and in ga the state web site for finding your precinct location is down
Wow, Brad, I thought you’d stepped up in your efforts to get necessary funding for your important work. Maybe you should share a list of people who do important work in the election integrity cause and maybe who need support. Right now US democracy is in a formidable choke hold. You guys have got to come up with some MMA (Mixed Media Arts) moves to free US democracy from that.
For those of you who observe the local canvassing of votes I recommend that you video tape the activities. even Blair Witch level footage is better than no footage.
Thankfully the Wisconsin AG issued an opinion on October 15, 2014 that elections are open meetings. Who wooda thunk it? Or that the clerks and the Wisconsin GAB would fight that election canvassing is *not* an open meeting?
If you video tap, be sure to get the number displayed on the front of the machine. this is the number of ballots the machine sensor claim went through the front slot. It is not always the same as the number printed on the poll tape which is what the *election programming* says went in the front slot. At minute 3:40 t0 4:30 you can see the Red LED number does not match the poll tape number for total ballots cast (586 v 576). without this video that red LED number would be lost to ether when the power was shut off.
September 26, 2006 Canvass Milwaukee, WI