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Black Box Voting 2008 New Tool Kit Now Online
From Black Box Voting
7-22-8
Permission to reprint, excerpt, and distribute granted.
Complete, Concise Tool Kit booklet:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.pdf
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Top 5 things you can do
1. Get involvedpg 5-8
2. Hook up with experienced groupspg 9
Freedom of Information Tipspg 10-11
3. Protect & defend deceptive practicespg 12-24
4. Protect & defend voter listspg 25-37
5. VOTING MACHINES:
Protect & defend vote countspg 38-71
HERE ARE SOME EXCERPTS:
(much more here: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.pdf
)
(comment section here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/76548.html
)
#1 GET INVOLVED
In the end, this isn't about getting your favorite presidential candidate
elected. This is about more permanent solutions: getting durable, ongoing
citizen-based controls to oversee all elections. Elections ultimately
control
your daily life: your property rights, roads, the public safety, the
justice
system, and ultimately, the economy, your freedom, and your health...
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION TIPS
All states have open records laws. You have the right to see any do***ent
(with a limited number of exceptions). Part of every public official's job
is
providing public records. They know it, they're used to it, there's
nothing
confrontational about asking to see a record, people do it all the time.
Here
is a wonderful compendium of summarized public records laws for each
state:
http://www.rcfp.org/ogg/index.php
Here is a useful site to generate professional-looking records requests:
http://www.splc.org/foiletter.asp
It helps to see examples. You can find hundreds of actual public records
requests, including the do***ents provided in response to them and the
occasional back-and-forth between requestor and public officials, by going
to
<http://www.blackboxvoting.org>http://www.blackboxvoting.org.
Use the
search
box at the top of the home page. Enter "records request" and it will find
pages with examples for you.
....
#3 PROTECT AND DEFEND AGAINST DECEPTIVE PRACTICES
WATCH FOR: Last minute changes, polling place consolidation, confusing
ballot
design, shorting voting machines, malfunctioning machines, electronic poll
book problems, supplies missing, not enough election workers, provisional
ballot roadblocks, deceptive phone calls / fliers, deceptive ballot
configurations, race left off some ballots, deceptive translations,
snoop-friendly ballots, improper absentee ballot / envelope design,
incorrect
mail ballot insertions / delivery problems, cheat peeks
Part of election protection is knowing what to watch for. These things
happen.
The first time you see it, you can't quite believe it. That disbelief
prevents
citizens from taking crucial, immediate action. Elections are time
sensitive.
Keep your eyes wide open, vow to respond quickly and effectively.
DON'T WAIT UNTIL LAST MINUTE TO CHECK YOUR POLLING PLACE.
A Santa Clara County, California man was told by his online polling place
finder that his address was in Gibbon, Iowa. If he had checked just as he
was
running out the door to vote, he would have experienced a delay.
During the 2008 primary, Black Box Voting tested the Philadelphia County,
Pennsylvania Web site "polling place-finder" using the addresses on our
own
donor list. Dozens of valid addresses showed a polling place not found
message.
Local newspapers often print polling place locations, and you can call
your
local elections division. Don't wait till the last minute, and before
heading
out the door, double-check the location of your polling place and help
others
find theirs.
DECEPTIVE TRANSLATIONS
Areas with substantial non-English speaking populations are required to
provide voter information in appropriate languages. In one California
location, the Spanish language voter information provided the wrong date
for
an election. In a New Mexico election, the Spanish description of a ballot
item was so misleading that new ballots had to be mailed, leading to
confusion
over which ballot to use. In a Connecticut election, instructions which in
English said "Vote for any two" said, in Spanish: "Vote for any OF the
two", a
translation which will literally cut votes in half for Spanish language
voters.
It's im****tant for language minority advocacy groups to review the
non-English
ballots, voter pamphlets and other election materials as far in advance of
the
election as possible. If you find a deceptive translation, find out who is
responsible for checking translations to make sure they are accurate and
what
firm did the translation. Demand correction and re****t to all stakeholders
and
advocacy groups, including the appropriate ethnic advocacy groups.
CHEAT PEEKS
Early and absentee voting provide op****tunities for "Cheat peeks"
illegal
peeks at results before Election Day.
In Pima County, Arizona audit logs show that early results were run in a
controversial election. Candidates spend heavily on pre-election polling.
Political polls sample a few hundred registered voters, who hopefully
provide
truthful answers to questions designed to elicit how they really will
vote.
Imagine now that one candidate (but not the other) gets access to
something
much more valuable: not hundreds, but tens of thousands of voters; not
answers
that are probably truthful, but the actual vote data.
No one insider or outsider should scan a single ballot before the end
of
Election Day. Some state laws specify that the ballots can be run through
the
tabulator if no one looks at the results (Hah!) and in Oregon, apparently,
"insiders" can look if they don't tell. (Hah!)
· GET AUDIT LOGS: Tabulator audit logs will show the cheat peeks, although
insiders can alter the audit logs. You can request copies of the audit
logs
daily. If the logs themselves have not been tampered with, you will find
an
evidence trail showing when results re****ts were run.
#4: PROTECT AND DEFEND VOTER LISTS
HELP WITH: Register people to vote, confirm registration, save evidence,
get
photo ID;
WATCH FOR: Slowdowns or crashes in statewide voter registration databases,
racial profiling, failure to enter new or updated registrations into the
database timely, names left off list (no explanation), category switching,
incorrect online feedback, problems with hyphenated names & typos,
impossible
numbers;
ADVANCED TOOLS: Statistics, voter list tracking
Register people to vote. Help people confirm that they are registered as
an
"active voter" (see distinctions between active, inactive, pending and
cancelled). Get voters on "inactive" status reactivated. Save
communications
from the elections office as evidence. Help people get photo ID. Urge
everyone
to bring it to the polling place, whether or not the state requires it.
BUT IT'S NOT GOING TO BE ENOUGH TO REGISTER VOTERS AND HELP THEM VOTE. We
already know that systematic voter disenfranchisement has been part of the
game plan in the past. This year let's get off the defense and play some
offense, and don't expect the old playbook to be repeated tit for tat.
You may have heard about voter list purging. Figures vary, but estimates
of
the number of voters wrongfully purged from 2000 Florida voter rolls range
from 50,000 to over 90,000. Wrongfully purged voters were
dispro****tionately
Black. These eligible voters were not allowed to vote at all.
In 2008 for the first time, all 50 states will be using new statewide
computerized voter registration databases. Most of what we're going to see
in
2008 will not be called "purging." This year, we're going to find voter
disenfranchisement in the statewide voter lists, especially in the
"PENDING"
area (new voter registrations not entered into the system, and
registrations
stuck in "pending" status); "CHANGE CATEGORIES," as voters are switched
from
one voter registration status to another, registrations are updated, and
in
TYPOS AND DATABASE QUIRKS that make database searches fail...
This year instead of 50-90,000 voters purged, we are looking at the
potential
to see FIVE TO 10 MILLION voter registrations stalled, changed, hit with
typos
or miscategorized.
These are exceptionally unwieldy problems and it is difficult to come up
with
meaningful citizen oversight actions, but with over 100 million voters on
these new computerized lists, we need to try.
Black Box Voting received eye witness re****ts from three large counties in
2004 indicating that thousands of registrations were not entered before
the
election (even though election officials claimed they were). Insiders told
us
this was due to staffing shortages and/or the refusal of county officials
to
pay for overtime or tem****ary help. Here are excerpts from an e-mail
received
by Black Box Voting from one of the tem****ary employees hired to do this:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quote:
"This year I answered the call to help the elections division enter all of
the
new registrations. It is my understanding that there was an entire
warehouse
of them somewhere and they were planning to hire a hundred people to enter
them. Here is what happened:
The training began. The person in charge of that was on pain medication
and my
training turned out to be, well, totally wrong. I was taught to enter a
specific code for certain kinds of registrations but sure enough, within a
day
we were having an "emergency" meeting about that particular code. She
apologized for teaching the code incorrectly and we all moved on. We
received
no training materials, after the apology for teaching the code wrong we
were
given a very shoddy word do***ent explaining a few things. There is no
written
manual.
The registration updates were about 3 months behind. We basically lied
about
when they were entered. If the form was submitted on say, the 1st of
November,
we were supposed to put that date in - even though I was doing it on the
4th
of February ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This above re****t illustrates something very im****tant: NOT ALL VOTER
REGISTRATION CARDS WERE ENTERED INTO THE SYSTEM AT ALL, UNTIL MONTHS
LATER!
Voters who were not entered in the database may be stripped of even their
provisional ballot. We have seen boxes and boxes of "to be entered" cards
after deadlines for getting them entered into the database. It is
inconceivable that all these were sorted through to determine whether
their
provisional ballot should count.
- Will updates and input to the voter registration database be done by
in-house staff, overtime, or tem****ary employees?
- What formula was used to project voter registration update & input
needs?
- Has the budget been approved for this?
- What tracking and re****ting system is available for internal controls
and
public oversight?
You can make an appointment and ask for a tour. Ask them to walk you
through
(literally) the process for entering and updating voter registrations.Ask
about internal controls. Ask what tracking re****ts will be. Don't believe
everything you hear.
The best way to get the real story is to develop a relation****p with a
clerk
or tem****ary employee tasked with entering the information. Ask how it's
really going.
#5 VOTING MACHINES:
PROTECT AND DEFEND THE VOTE COUNTS
PROCEDURAL IMPROVEMENTS: Transparency Project, Input to Output;
IDENTIFY PROBLEM LOCATIONS: History of indictments, missing internal
control
forms, public records obstruction, weak management, observation
obstruction;
past election problems; ELECTION PHASES: Pre-election; Early voting &
absentee
periods; Election Day; Election Night; Canvassing period; Post-election:
ADVANCED TOOLS: Voting machine examinations, Web snapshot tools, poll
tape/central tabulation comparison, citizen ballot inspection audit,
voting
machine audit items
All computerized voting machines, as currently implemented, count votes in
secret, and all election computers are under the control of administrators
and
programmers. All computers do what they are told to do by their
administrators
and programmers.
This is the core problem with voting machines.
Using these new systems, the citizenry has inadvertently ceded ultimate
control over to government insiders and the vendors they select.
DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS MUST:
(a) Give the public full access to Freedom of Information on every aspect
of
the election.
(b) Count all votes in public (while maintaining individual political
privacy)
(c) Allow the public to see for themselves that the votes being counted
are
the original votes, not counterfeit or substitute votes. "Chain of
custody"
must always be public.
IN THE NOVEMBER 2008 ELECTION:
- Your right to sovereignty over your government will not be honored.
- 99 percent of the votes will be counted in secret on computers
controlled by
government insiders and vendors.
- Your right to Freedom of Information will not be honored.
- You will be unable to ascertain that chain of custody is intact.
- It's too late to resolve these problems for 2008.
- It's not too late for partial solutions.
- It's not too late to collect im****tant cir***stantial evidence to *****s
the
accuracy of the election.
Not a good situation. Despite passionate and always underfunded efforts by
citizens for several years to get these issues addressed, we're up against
it
again in 2008. It's too late for new legislation or major changes. Let's
work
with what we have:
More on Procedural improvements, see pg 41-42 in Tool Kit 2008:
- Precinct-based public hand counts
- Transparency Projects
- Input to Output
IDENTIFY PROBLEM LOCATIONS FOR EXTRA SCRUTINY:
- History of indictments
- Missing internal control forms
- Public records obstruction
- Weak management or poor quality controls
- Observation obstruction
- Past election problems
In the weeks leading up to the election, help gather information to
predict
problem locations. Let's treat these problem locations to extra scrutiny.
You can get an idea for past vote-counting problems by doing a news
search,
looking for incident re****ts filed by citizens, and by reading the text of
any
election contest lawsuits in the location you want to monitor. You can
find
incident re****ts by vendor and also by state and county (and/or
municipality)
at blackboxvoting.org and VotersUnite.org. If you Google "election
incident
re****ts" you can locate databases of re****ted incidents from 2004 and
2006.
PRE-ELECTION PHASE
Indictments, guilty pleas, convictions: Because computerized vote-counting
is
controlled by insiders, any locations with a history of corruption in key
local government positions are particularly at risk for computerized
vote-counting fraud. Key positions include county supervisors and
commissioners (who often appoint elections officials); sheriffs, judges,
county auditors and county clerks.
"Facts. Facts. Facts. Brick by brick we will build American democracy
better
than the Founders ever imagined possible."
Nancy Tobi, Election Defense Alliance
PUBLIC RECORDS: You can request to inspect or get copies of
election-related
records, including: voter complaints, poll worker incident re****ts,
telephone
Election Day sup****t logs, and "rover" or technician logs. You can find
many
examples of these requests and responses in the state and
county/municipality
section of blackboxvoting.org.
BOOKKEEPING & RECONCILIATIONS: Vote counting is a form of bookkeeping.
Properly run elections are accompanied by re****t forms showing how many
voters
signed in, how many ballots were provided, how many were cast, spoiled,
and
uncast. You will be surprised how often the numbers don't add up!
Sometimes
poll workers explain the discrepancies, but sometimes the numbers are off
by
hundreds with no explanation.
INTERNAL CONTROL FORMS: Some locations will re****t that they have had no
problems, when in fact they don't provide any forms to poll workers to log
the
problems. If you ask to look at a blank copy of each form for poll
workers,
and also forms for tracking voting machines, seals, peripheral equipment,
telephone re****ts, and technician visits you'll get a good idea as to
whether
adequate control systems are even being used. Filled-out copies will show
how
well they manage quality. This will help predict which locations are most
likely to experience problems or fraud in November.
TAMPERING SYMPTOMS:
- Voting machines could not "close" properly
- Cartridge would not read
- Tabulators failed to read some memory cards so technicians had to
"extract
the data"
- Some cartridges or memory cards were tem****arily misplaced
- "We're not sure why votes were incorrect"
- "The vendor is looking into it for us"
- Voting machines had to be replaced during the election due to
malfunctions
- Broken or mismatched seals
- Calibration problem
- Counter didn't increment
- Machine would not produce a "zero re****t" before votes cast
- Electronic poll book said voter had already voted absentee, voter says
no
OBSTRUCTIVE VS. COOPERATIVE: You can get a good idea how responsive each
location is to public oversight by submitting a very simple one-item
public
records request and observing response. Are they prompt, complete,
reasonably
priced? Or do they inflate response timelines, price gouge, and obstruct?
Find out if the public (not just "politically appointed observers") is
allowed
to view the vote counting after the polls close. Find out if videotaping
is
allowed.
In most cases you'll find that local and state officials are more than
willing
to work on implementing solutions. If you spot significant problems or run
into obstructive public officials, you may want to enlist the help of the
voting rights committees for your political party, re****t to election
protection groups, and build public awareness through the media. Focus on
prevention. Try to spot problems ahead of time so improvements can be
achieved
before November elections.
FOR PERSONALIZED ADVICE, MENTORING AND INPUT
Contact citizen empowerment and volunteer helpers at Black Box Voting,
Election Defense Alliance, or a local election protection group. You can
ask
questions by e-mail:
<mailto:crew@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>crew@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-
You may also get sup****t and direction from your preferred political
party,
and you can help connect your favorite candidates and party with election
integrity organizations.
....
Get involved. Your election protection actions this year will be part of
returning control over election processes to the people who own the
government.
"You are not required to complete the task, yet you are not free to
withdraw
from it." Rabbi Tarfon
More: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.pdf
If you would like to receive a printed copy of TOOL KIT 2008 send a
request by
e-mail with your name and mailing address. Printed pocket Tool Kit 2008
booklets will be mailed in August.
* * * * *
Black Box Voting is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit elections watchdog
group
working to improve public controls in our elections.
More: http://www.BlackBoxVoting.org
TO DONATE:http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
To mail:
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057
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