It's time to stand up and protect voting rights in your community on Election Day.For the sake of representative government in the USA,get involved in the election process by not only voting, but by volunteering your time to work at a local precinct,and encourage members of your community to do the same.Take steps now to ensure that your right to vote is secure despite expected chaos and confusion at the polls in November.

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Protecting Your Vote and Representative Government in the November General Election

by Kat L'Estrange

October 9, 2006

This alert is being issued due to widespread changes in types of voting equipment used nationwide along with new management of voter registration databases in most states as a result of the Help America Vote Act that went into effect January 1, 2006. As well, voter suppression tactics continue as get-out-the-vote groups hired by the Republican National Committee are suspected of falsifying voter registration forms in Tennessee.

ALL POINTS BULLETIN

It's time for the citizenry to take responsibility for verifying their voting registration status prior to Election Day in November. Citizens can no longer take for granted that public elections officials are able to protect their voting rights as many states and local jurisdictions contract management of the process to private voting companies, including processing voter registration forms to providing precincts with the most current voter registration lists on Election Day, to providing the ballots and computerized voting machines on which votes are cast, in addition to programming the computers that tally the votes.

In order to vote, a citizen must be legally registered in accordance with state law and must re-register to vote when voter information changes or when changing residences. The majority of citizens in the United States understand this process and abide by the law. We must question whether private voting corporations take the process as seriously given past performance and their refusal to acknowledge abysmal failures that have led to changes in the outcomes of elections disregarding majority votes and ultimately the public's desire for confidence in the election process.

In preparation for this year's midterm election, please make a trip down to the Board of Elections to check your registration status, and encourage others to do so as well. Take it upon yourself to make sure your registration status is active and accurate prior to Election Day. You'll need to take care of your registration status prior to the last day to register to vote in your state--in some states, this deadline is 30 days prior to an election--or you may have to vote by provisional ballot.

You may be able to check your registration status by phone or online, but if you can make the trip down to the Board of Elections, please do so. While you are there, please ask them to confirm:

* the polling location where you are authorized to vote in your precinct.
* hours of operation at the polls.
* what type of identification is required and acceptable to allow you to vote.
* if computerized voting machines are being used what steps must be taken to document any difficulty using them during the voting process, and is it possible to cast your vote on a paper ballot instead (some states give voters this option).
* how you go about volunteering to work at the polls or request the opportunity to observe the process.

BE ON THE LOOKOUT

Knowing full well that one way to win elections is to keep the opposition's supporters from voting, widespread misinformation is being spread to prevent certain members of our communities from voting. This anti-democratic practice has occurred throughout our nation's history, but appears to be on the rise especially in urban and isolated rural communities affecting a large portion of minority voters. It has been reported that individuals are hired by political parties, and/or other interested parties to challenge voters at the polls or who fail to process opposition party voter registration forms, which is not realized by the person registering until at the polls when it is most often too late to process another registration form.

In Tennessee last week, elections officials began an investigation of falsified voter registration forms submitted by get-out-the-vote groups, Tennessee Victory 2006 and Liberty Consultants, led by Nathan Sproul who was hired by the Republican National Committee in August. Sproul is suspected of re-registering an unknown number of voters falsifying voter information, e.g., adding incorrect dates of birth and social security numbers without permission of the voter. This would make the voter ineligible to vote by regular ballot on Election Day. Elections officials were made aware of the errors by the voters when they received new voter registration cards in the mail. Sproul was linked to registration fraud in the 2004 election as well in at least 8 states, and even still remains on the RNC's payroll.

Teams of other criminally-minded individuals linked to the Republican Party have also been found guilty of phone jamming in order to deprive voters of accurate information or last minute reminders or updates from opposition candidates on or just prior to Election Day. The goal is clearly to deny voters of their voting rights at the polls in order to change the outcome of the election.

All the more reason why you must check your voter registration status now or as soon as possible to ensure you are accurately registered to vote. Do not leave the process up to your local elections officials, but do inform them if you suspect fraud has occurred. We must denounce these practices as despicable and anti-democratic.

Some common myths about the voting process circulating in communities now include:

* massive voter fraud is occurring at the polls.
* large numbers of illegals are voting.
* widespread difficulties at the polls are because elections volunteers are poorly trained and misguiding voters.
* because we are entitled to vote privately, our votes must be counted secretly.

GET INVOLVED

Help keep elections local and public by offering to participate as a volunteer at your Board of Elections. At the very least request to be an observer of the voting process on Election Day. Remain alert once inside your polling location and ask local elections officials to document any problems you may have prior to or while voting. Encourage others you see having difficulties to do the same. Given the many changes to the nation's election process, please be prepared when you go to vote to show proper identification at the polls in case of challenge.

If you are involved in party politics in your community, please encourage positive involvement by your political party officials at the polls rather than shenanigans that deny people the right to vote, even opposition voters. Ask party officials to have a presence at the polls to observe and help document problems voters encounter while there waiting to vote or voting. Coordinate this effort with the efforts of grassroots election protection/integrity volunteers who are there to offer public oversight of the voting process. A few more suggestions to demand of local political party officials include:

* Pressure elections officials to make paper ballots which are to be counted as regular ballots on Election Day available for use in case of malfunctioning computerized voting machines.
* Organize emergency phone banks using the most current voter registration lists available in all precincts--particularly in areas with high minority populations and in precincts where computerized voting machines without paper ballots are used--to make voters aware that changes to the voter registration databases have gone into effect as a result of HAVA in January 2006, and this may very well affect their voting status. Provide voters with a number to call to check their registration status prior to deadline date (each state varies), or encourage them to visit their county elections offices to confirm that they are legally registered to vote.
* Assign Election Day observers to monitor each precinct in order to provide voters an opportunity to document any difficulties they encounter prior to or while voting. Make sure all precincts are provided with the most current copy of the voter registration list used in get-out-the-vote efforts to reference if problems arise regarding registration, and document any discrepancies.
* In counties where emergency paper ballots are not offered, make sure that voters unable to vote are offered provisional ballots (with proper affidavit) at the very least before leaving the precinct. Write down voter's name and contact information, and reason voter was not able to vote by regular ballot.
* Follow through with local elections officials on the processing and counting of provisional ballots as quickly as possible. HAVA gives the states responsibility of establishing the protocol used for handling of provisional ballots. Demand elections officials hold off from declaring a winner in the election until after the provisional ballots are counted.
* Observe vote tallying on Election Day along with elections officials. Invite county commissioners if available.
* Challenge any election immediately if it appears the election was not properly administered with denial of voting rights due to voter registration or voting equipment failures.
* Provide an analysis of the results, including provisional ballots that were not counted, to the public so that debate may follow on a reasonable remedy to protect voting rights in the next election.

Any political party that directs voters to the polls without taking steps to protect voting rights precinct-wide beforehand is not only acting irresponsibly, but dangerously as it may erode the public's confidence in voting even further. Election fraud is at an all time high mainly as a result of illegal voter suppression tactics that are being utilized to win the election at all costs, and unsafe computerized voting systems which affect not only casting and tallying of ballots, but voter registration databases too. Safeguards must be employed to prevent even more voters in future election cycles from asking, Why bother? If political parties truly want to see every vote counted, then they must prevent disenfranchisement and further discouragement among the electorate at the polls now.

REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT AT STAKE

I challenge you to not get discouraged between now and November as a result of federal and state changes to election law, or because hired party hacks who do not care about representative government are making a mockery of public elections. It's time to stand up and protect voting rights in your community on Election Day. For the sake of representative government in the United States of America, get involved in the election process by not only voting, but by volunteering your time to work at a local precinct, and encourage members of your community to do the same. Take steps now to ensure that your right to vote is secure despite expected chaos and confusion at the polls in November.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
http://www.GregPalast.com
http://www.BradBlog.com
http://www.BlackBoxVoting.org
http://www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org
http://www.StealingAmerica.org
http://www.FreePress.org
http://www.markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/
www.Electionline.org
http://www.electionline.org/Portals/1/Publications/ERIPBrief13.final.pdf
http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/election-fraud.htm
http://www.opednews.com
http://verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5133

Authors Bio:
Kat L'Estrange is a voting rights activist and strong advocate for honest elections in the United States of America, and has been involved in the grassroots election reform movement since the 2000 election. She has worked actively to raise public awareness on serious issues involving election fraud and voter suppression tactics employed by political parties and private corporations, and the dangers of privatization of public elections. Kat is a veteran of the United States Armed Forces having served in both the United States Air Force and California Air National Guard. She received a Bachelor's degree in Communication Studies from California State University, Sacramento.