Host your own Help America Vote--On Paper DVD party or meeting. Here's How

Top 5 Citizen Actions You Can Take

While the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is a federal law having dire impact nationwide, many of the final decisions about voting equipment, policy and election procedures are made at the local level. Successful turnarounds are being achieved county-by-county around the country, by people showing up. Whether by phone, by letter, or in person, a flood of curious and informed citizens (that’s you!) have been knocking on the doors of the insular elections officials community. They’re demanding a moratorium on touchscreen DRE (Direct Record Electronic) voting machines, and a commitment to paper-ballot-based voting. And they are having an impact. Here’s how to dive in:

1. Host! Show “Help America Vote..ON PAPER” to others
Build out awareness, hope and action – host your own screenings of this 18-minute DVD

In a country redlining on “outrage fatigue,” election integrity talk just about rubs people to the bone. But if you can offer evidence, simplicity, progress, and action, anyone can stomach just about any issue. That’s where this fast-paced and inspiring 18-minute DVD (from EON Media) comes in. You don’t have to be any kind of expert – just show the movie, and get to talking about next steps:

• Preview the film online at MainstreetMoms.org (Quicktime format)
  
• Order DVD from filmmakers Eon Media at eon3.net ($15, or ask about bulk pricing)
• Print a How-to-Host kit from MainstreetMoms.org
• Pick a time and place, publicize the event, and test your DVD equipment ahead of time
• Consider mailing this DVD to friends in other states and counties, opinion leaders, press

With thanks & admiration to EON Media for months of work, footage, equipment and lost sleep!

2. Volunteer to work the polls, get informed (and get paid!)
Retake an increasingly privatized election process – be an informed pollworker

Come see for yourselves what’s up with American elections, while you help voters cast their votes. This is one area of election integrity that actually pays (anywhere from $50-$120 a day). And there’s a real need for help in the precincts, as the average age of the American pollworker approaches 72. So if you can possibly do it, grab a friend, get informed, and get a front row seat for the 2006 elections:

• Sign up with your election official as a pollworker (contact info at ovf-eod.org)
• Be prepared for a possible day of training plus a long day on Election Day
• Get informed: Find out what equipment will be in use, and read up. Tech information at VoteTrustUSA.org, background at VotersUnite.org and MainstreetMoms Reading Room
• We want to hear about your Election Day experience: Click JOIN at MainstreetMoms.org so we can send you guidelines, tips and a way to report back

As veteran pollworker of Florida Mary Beth Kuznik says, “No one is closer to the voters and sees more of what goes on with the voting machines than the pollworkers.”

3. Get press: Letters-to-the-editor, blogging, DVD, press releases
Change the national conversation – use the press

Many people count on the news to tell them what to care about. And oddly enough, politicians look to the news to tell them what we care about. That’s why the long media silence on a deeply flawed technology (electronic voting machines) is dangerous. It’s important now to pump the issue of election integrity and voting machines into the press, persistently and creatively. Here’s how to get started:

• First check for any election integrity groups already active in your area through VoteTrustUSA.org: They may have a press plan with which they’d love help.
• Then look for any opening in your local newspapers, local TV coverage, blogs, or local radio to respond with a Letter-to-the-Editor. (Tips at MainstreetMoms.org)
• Concoct an action, start a group, show up at offices, parades or hearings with banners (try 50% Clorox lettering on colored canvas!) – then call people in the press
• Ask questions about election integrity and machines at candidate events, hearings, other
  

*BONUS: Brainstorm with a friend a list of media people and opinion leaders who you think could wake up and make a difference. Get addresses online, email or call with the link for viewing Help America Vote…ON PAPER, and hound them, nicely

4. Call, write, and question your local elections officials
Restore transparency -- one question, one letter, one call at a time

Every county is different, but under HAVA’s absurd 2006 deadline and vendor-friendly language regarding touchscreen DRE (Direct Record Electronic) machines, the nation has undergone a major shift toward that costly, worst-case technology. At the same time, HAVA is mandating every state develop centralized voter databases, which have been wrongly purging new voters at rates of up to 43%.

• Get contact information for officials at www.ovf-eod.org and www.nass.org
• Ask (respectfully, it works better) what voting equipment will be in use in your county
• If your officials are using good equipment (paper-ballot-based), thank them, then ask if they will audit a percentage of votes, and if results will be posted at the precinct. If they’re using bad equipment (touchscreen DREs), ask those questions, and many more:
• How will they guarantee the accuracy of the vote totals; Are there preparations for counting a high volume of provisional ballots; Will recounts be possible?
• Finally, will they heed advice from the bi-partisan Carter/Baker Commission? “The machines are likely to break down. Have enough paper ballots on hand as back-up”

NOTE: Titles of elections officials vary across states, such as Registrar, Clerk, or Elections Chief; and comprise varied levels of government: Sec. of State, Boards of Supervisors, County Commissioners

5. Letter-writing to leverage the lawsuits: Evidence is evidence is evidence
There are big cases already built against Diebold, Sequoia, and DREs – use them like a hammer

The biggest, best turnaround to date on the machines front first happened in New Mexico, where Governor Bill Richardson responded to tangible evidence, citizen action, and VoterAction’s Sequoia DREs lawsuit by coming out for all-paper-ballot voting using optiscans. Use this and other cases now from VoterAction.org. Here’s how:

• Sleuthing: Find out which counties in your state are going with Diebold, which with Sequoia, and which with other touchscreens (check VerifiedVoting.org, or Sec. of State)
• Go to VoterAction.org, download and deliver (or mail) to your elections officials the NM legal case for Sequoia counties, and the CA legal case for Diebold counties. They’re very long – consider sending just the summary or make clear reference to the site in your letter
• If you’re hand-delivering to a Supervisors or Commissioners meeting, call the press

Finally, send this guilt-free rabblerousing sheet of actions to friends of yours in other states and counties.