Resources for Election Protection

We hope that you'll be able to cast your vote in confidence. But if not, we've put together a short list of resources for action on Election Day and after.

www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org is working to build coalitions among individuals and groups and recruit volunteers for a variety of response teams. They are especially looking for volunteers to help with monitoring, data analysis, legal defense, and communications, and will also be coordinating demonstrations following a botched election.

www.videothevote.org is looking for volunteers to videotape at the polls on Election Day. They note that voter problems went underreported in 2004, and by the time a more complete picture of disenfranchisement emerged, the mainstream media weren't interested. They’re calling for citizen journalists to document problems as they occur—for screening on-line and for a more complete evidential picture of what happens November 7.

www.velvetrevolution.us has put together an Election Protection Strike Force featuring a Fraud Hotline (1-888-VOTETIP); a $250,000 Election Fraud Reward Fund to encourage whistleblowers to come forward about election rigging (tips@VelvetRevolution.us); and the “Democracy: It’s Worth the Wait” initiative, calling on candidates to wait until all votes are counted before conceding or declaring a win. Velvetrevolution.us has also called for a state-by-state initiative for emergency paper ballots, and will be supporting independent exit polling. You can sign up for daily e-mail alerts at their website.

The National Campaign for Fair Elections has a toll-free Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE, and are looking for election protection volunteers. For information and a list of areas of the country that are of special concern, visit their website Services include bilingual assistance in areas with high concentrations of Spanish-speaking voters.

The job of safeguarding our elections won't be over when the polls close. Network of Citizens recommends that we:

• Fight for paper ballots in ALL election systems and for the paper ballots to be the legal ballots of record.
• Fight for the elimination of e-voting systems and for the use of paper ballot systems such as optical scan.
• Demand statistically valid verification procedures to ensure the reported machine tallies accurately reflect the ballots cast by the voters, and that election results are not certified until the results have been verified or corrected.
• Refuse to let another questionable election go unchallenged.
• The best election observation is or can be done by pollworkers. Protect election integrity from inside the system by signing up to be a pollworker.