Friday afternoon, the paperwork was completed for Citizens for Election Reform to join International Humanities Center (IHCenter) as a sponsored program.
According to Steve Sugarman, Executive Director, "IHCenter was created in 1998 to foster social and ecological justice, as well as efforts in the realms of peace, education, women's and children's issues, and animal rights." Over 100 different progressive efforts are currently being sponsored by IHCenter. I'm delighted to be one of them.

This collaboration means that contributions to my "Invisible Ballots" lending library project are tax-deductible and can be made by visiting IHCenter's website or my
blog: CountEveryVote.blogspot.com. Donations can be made using credit cards, Pay Pal or by writing personal checks to Citizens for Election Reform and sending them to me or IHCenter (being sure to specify Citizens for Election Reform). I'm hopeful that this will open doors for me and make it easier to raise funds to keep the lending library going. I look forward to the day that I can disband the library because free, fair and transparent elections are already a reality for all American voters. Until that time, I will continue to reach out to every corner of this country to try to raise awareness about the perils facing our elections, the cornerstone of our democracy.

This week, I sent a copy of "Invisible Ballots" to Commissioner at Large Cliff Thaell of Leon County, Florida. Leon County garnered headlines on December 13th, 2005, when Superintendent of Elections Ion Sancho invited Finnish security expert Harri Hursti for an authorized hack of the Diebold optical scanner memory cards. The success and ease with which this hack was accomplished sent shockwaves across the country and shed welcome light on the reasons voting activists object to this type of voting equipment.

Mr. Thaell was part of the commissioners' unanimous vote of confidence in Mr.
Sancho this week despite the substantial pressure brought to bear by Sec. of State Sue Cobb and the electronic voting machine lobby. The many thousands of emails that were sent to the commissioners, Secretary of State Cobb and Governor Bush flooded the various state offices and left them very aware that the entire country was watching. Mr. Thaell is happy to have the opportunity to watch "Invisible Ballots" and I am interested in hearing his feedback.

Many thanks to all of you committed to election reform who have helped the library project reach well over 200 individual and group borrowers over the last six months. Anyone interested in this project should contact me or visit the IHCenter website. I'm constantly looking for new contacts/new directions.
Suggestions are always welcome. Many sets of eyes, ears and voices are definitely better than one. Onward and upward!

Reminder: Checks should be made out to Citizens For Election Reform and sent to me or IHCenter, PO Box 923, Malibu, CA 90265