Time to Get Involved for the Finale

Irrespective of the results of the debates and advertising and GOPTV efforts, Nov. 2nd will be meaningless unless people who show up to vote are allowed to, and unless those votes are counted.

Today I attended a briefing by Lawyers for Kerry, (nylawyers@americansforkerry.com) which is organizing teams of Lawyers and Law Students from "safe states" to travel to battleground states and act as pollwatchers/intervention teams at sensitive precincts, prepared to step in if voters are turned away or intimidated or if other hanky panky occurs.

I've also attended a training program sponsored by ELECTION PROTECTION (www.electionprotection.org), an umbrella group of non-partisan organizations which are doing much the same thing in primarily minority voting areas. Thousands of volunteers are needed (lawyers and law students are especially prized, but "civilians" are welcome as well)to receive training in the respective election laws of Florida, Ohio or other swing states, and to travel to these states for election day (or longer if possible) to protect people's voting rights.

Both groups are still looking for volunteers and have scheduled future briefing/training sessions, and both will try to accomodate for preferred destination, taking into account the actual needs in each state. Neither program is covering travel or living expenses (although efforts are being made to locate host families and discount accomodations), but I think this is a moment in time that we've all got to dig into our pockets and vacation allotments and make a committment to preserve our democratic system. My wife and I will both be travelling (probably to Florida) to do our part.

not being a smart ass...just bringing up a very real issue

First of all, the majority of voting machines are still not e-voting systems; there are a lot of optical scan, level machines and even good old vote-o-matics, so observing the counts and the preservation of ballot documents will be important. Second, I believe there will be people prepared to inspect machine setups, security, etc.

That being said, I don't tend to worry too much about rigging the counting programs as some do, largely because there's no central voting authority that programs them all. Each county in each state has resonsiblity for its own systems, ballot layouts etc. The primary goal has to be to make sure the votes come out, and are allowed to use the machines, and know how.