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Saturday, October 30
This Year For Halloween, Go Trick-or-Voting!
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 30 Oct 2004 05:28 PM CDT
 This Year For Halloween, Go Trick-or-Voting!
by T. Eve Greenaway and Chinyere Tutashinda, AlterNet.org
By going
door-to-door in costume, offering up treats, voting tips and directions
to polling places, this year’s trick-or-voters will also be spreading
the word: there has never been a better time to make politics fun.
“People
are already expecting you to knock on their door on Halloween. So it’s
the one day of the year where people will be home and ready to answer
the door,” says Sarita “the Great Witch” Ryan, an organizer for Trick
or Vote. “This way, it’ll be fun for everybody involved, not just
another [election] canvasser coming by.”
The idea
is simple enough. This year, Halloween falls just two days before what
many are calling the “most important election of our lifetime.” And,
while most of us have had it up to here with both Bush and Kerry –
their voices on the radio, their mugs all over the television and on
the front of all the newspapers – young people everywhere are using
this holiday to remind each other that the election is as much about
one another, and the issues we care about, as it is about the
candidates. By going door-to-door in costume, offering up directions to
polling places, reminders to bring an ID, and Halloween classics like
Tootsie Rolls and Pal bubblegum, this year’s trick-or-voters will also
be spreading the word: politics and fun are not opposing forces.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
Friday, October 29
The Final Push is On: What You Can Do!
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 29 Oct 2004 09:58 AM CDT
 The Final Push is On: What You Can Do!
by Andrew Smith, Candidate for Iowa House District 40, Tama and Grundy Counties
I know
everyone is tired. I know that we are all sick of the campaign, sick of
the lies, sick of the distortions and sick of the rhetoric. But now is
gut check time, and when the going gets tough the tough get going.
You must
always remember that you have the power to take our country back. You
have the power to make a difference right now in these closing days for
progressive candidates. Log off your computer right now and go help. Go
to the nearest headquarters of a candidate you support. You have the
power and you can make a difference these final days.
You have to believe. We can win! We will win!
Andrew Smith
What You Can Do!
1) As Andrew said, contact a local progressive you support and
help out. Even three hours will make a big difference. On
the right sidebar of Blog for Iowa, you will find links to the websites
(with contact information) of a number of Iowa progressives.
2) No local progressives? Get in touch with the Dem HQ for
your county and volunteer to make phone calls. You will find some
of the Dem county websites with contact info listed here.
3) Go to New Jersey Congressman Rush Holt's Count Every Vote website to see
how you can help out on Election Day. Stop election fraud in its
tracks.
4) Go to the ACT website to see if they are still taking people.
5) Check out this great resource from MoveOn - Election Protection Card - print it and take it with you to hand out.
6) Help turn out voters in Iowa with AmericaVotes.org.
Wednesday, October 27
Election Day Problems: What To Watch For
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 27 Oct 2004 04:28 AM CDT
 Election Day Problems: What To Watch For
Voters Unite!
Below, find ways you can help no matter where you live.
SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT ...
1) Electronic voting machines changing votes!!
VOTERS — CHECK THE REVIEW SCREEN!!
This means YOU, Clay County!
First, don't touch the touch screen anywhere but where you intend to
touch. Early voters have found that resting their hand on the screen
while they vote causes the screen to register the wrong selection.
Second, take your time so you vote for your real choices. Some voters
are reporting that the touch screen machines aren't working properly
and they are having trouble recording their votes as they intend. Read about it here.
2) The paper option in California!!
This from EFF: California voters who are worried about electronic
voting machines have an option to vote on paper this year. Many groups
worked very hard to get this from the Secretary of State and it was a
major victory - he was sued over it and won in federal court.
Now we've learned that several of the larger counties (including
Alameda, Santa Clara and Riverside) have instructed their poll workers
that they cannot tell voters about this choice. They must steer voters
to the insecure machines and can only offer paper if a voter takes the
initiative to choose it.
Needless to say, this is outrageous. To try to raise voter awareness of
the choice (and hopefully shame the registrars of voters to change
their minds), Electronic Frontier Foundation has created a website with
a creative explanation:
http://www.paperorplastic2004.org
Take a look. Then send the link on to your friends, family and other
voters in the 11 affected counties (the list is on the website). We
have very little time to get the word out. Spread this far and wide.
Hopefully, we can even provoke a little media coverage as well.
3) A dangerous port on the Diebold touch screen!!
This from TrueVoteMD: Diebold AccuVote TS electronic voting machines
have an infrared (IrDA) port installed (see the picture above). This is
a remote communication port through which another remote device could
communicate with the touch screen and change either its data or its
software or both.
If your county uses Diebold touch screens, let your county officials
and election judges know that it is crucial to cover the IR port with
opaque tape.
——————————————————————
HELP GATHER INFORMATION ...
With Election Day just one week away, it is clear that this is the most
scrutinized election in recent history. Problems that may have been
occurring unnoticed for years are now coming under the spotlight. While
it can be discouraging to face the many ways in which our election
system is in need of repair, knowing the extent of the problems
provides us with information we need to improve the system.
Here are some ways you can help expose election problems to the light of day.
1) Sign up to collect and report your precinct totals.
Tracking precinct totals is an important way to scrutinize the
election. You can add to the information by submitting the totals from
your precinct. VoteWatch has an explanation and signup form here:
http://www.votewatch.us/participate/closing_voter
2) Let us know about election problems of all types.
We have a new
page summarizing election problems reported in the news — not just
electronic voting problems, but problems of all types.
http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp
Items are added as we hear about them, so if you see an article we
haven't included, please let us know by filling out this simple form:
http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems_submit.asp
3) Report Election Day problems.
To Election Protection at https://voteprotect.org/
or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)
To BlackBoxVoting at http://www.blackboxvoting.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi
Sign up for TechWatch at http://www.verifiedvoting.org/techwatch/
Thanks!!
~ the VotersUnite team
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