I wanted to try a parallel election in NJ but it was impossible to get any group to go along with it. I must admit, I got a late start -- but I did a lot of work on it that can be used by others.
Here is the ballot and flyer I created in .doc format
Citizen's Audit Exit Poll Flyer
http://www.princeton.edu/~slalbert/citizensaudit.doc Citizen's Audit Exit Poll Ballot
http://www.princeton.edu/~slalbert/ballot-1.doc and one of several posts that I made to get people interested in doing this.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=398114&mesg_id=398129 Below is an e-mail exhange (kind of long) I had with Josh Mitteldorf that sort of sums up the conclusion of my desperate plea for statistical credibility. Josh told me what so many others did, the results won't be considered credible without the gravitas of Zogby or Mitofsky. Last week, I spoke with a legislative assistant of Rush Holt's. They think that some of the ideas I've explored are a good way to protect our vote until Rush's bill gets passed (if it ever does even get to the floor, that is!). I'm going to keep exploring this and I hope you'll all join me
He asked how he could help ...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan
To: "Josh Mitteldorf"
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 4:56 PM
Subject: How you can help...
> First, thanks for your reply and congratulations to you and the others for your newest paper. It's too bad that what you
> have all discovered has received such scant media attention. Democratic Underground and other bloggers are busy
> sending to the media outlets - so, hopefully that will soon change.
>
> So how can you help.... well, let me count the ways!
>
> What I need most is credibility. I'm an ordinary citizen (mother of
> teenagers) with a lot of concern that votes be counted
> accurately. I have no expertise in math/statistics but I am willing to
> take leadership of this at least in one polling place.
> If I do this, I'll need someone with credibility who could either be
> physically present in Princeton on election day or
> available by phone to get the most articulate response possible to media
> inquiries.
>
> Besides a test of the paperless Sequoia machines used in the district I
> chose, I'd like to use this as an opportunity to
> raise awareness about the auditibility problem. Also, it would be good
> to experiment with citizen exit polls as we
> prepare for what to do when 2006 arrives and nothing has been done about
> auditable voting systems by then.
>
> So...
>
> what do you think of the idea of a citizen's audit? Did you see the
> ballot? What do you think? Is there a better way that
> you would suggest to audit votes? We are able to vote absentee now w/o an
> excuse. My other thought is to have Dems
> encourage absentee ballots and have every voter make a copy of their
> ballot and let the dem party know that they did
> that. That is not likely to happen though from what I've seen of the
> Corzine campaigns seeming lack of attention to the
> auditability issue. (Rush Holt tried to make it an issue with the
> campaign, but it went nowhere. I saw him last week and
> begged him to keep after them!).
>
> How big of a sample is necessary to make it statistically reliable? (in terms of percentage of voters since it will probably
> not be a huge turnout)
>
> Is it necessary to be present throughout the entire voting day at one
> polling place to get the best sample?
>
> If you think that citizen's exit polls are a good idea, would I be able to
> do it under the banner of the project you are
> involved with and you could be the lead consultant on the project (unless
> you know of someone better who would be
> willing to help)?
>
> I see that you are part of a math forum. What is it that you do there?
>
> Do you have anyone in your mathforum network in Princeton that has
> expressed interest in the election analyses that
> you've been involved in since the '04 election.
>
> Do you know where the best place at Princeton University to look for the
> people who would be interested in doing it
> would be? I've already tried Princeton Votes, College Dems and a new
> locally focused political institute at Woodrow
> Wilson School (poli-sci dept). ACLU-NJ is doing other things and turned
> down this idea due to concerns about signature
> (optional) and partisanship (I prefer non-partisan). There are some of
> the best activists in NJ involved in ACLU voter
> protection but, it's too late to argue with them for this election. I
> haven't tried the math dept. at Princeton yet, but I will if I
> know that what I'm doing is a project that would have the credibility to
> attract volunteers.
>
>
> In Mercer Co. Sequoia e-voting machines are used and they do not have
> paper trail capability. NJ just passed
> legislation this year that will make it mandatory by '08, but a lot of
> harm can be done before that happens, especially if
> Forrester wins or steals the election. He's closing in on Corzine and I
> bet he'll be digging into the bag of GOP dirty tricks
> right before election day.
>
> I work in a library now, but have a lot of
> experience as an after-school educator and have
> designed some engaging programs that were popular with students. What
> I've learned from raising my own kids and
> trying to educate an after school programs is that whatever you want to
> teach them carries more weight when it is being
> done in partnership with regular teachers in school. It seems that
> everyone agrees that kids need to be more math-
> literate and more civicly engaged. This project seems like a perfect way
> to do both.
>
> My original idea was to engage students of math and civics/social studies
> in college, HS and middle school in the exit
> poll project so that they could use the exercise as an authentic learning
> activity that would provide good practical
> experience with statistical analyisis (depending on their level) and the
> democratic process. Making a project like this an
> opportunity for extra credit or even part of the curriculum seems like an
> efficient way to take our democracy back while
> giving kids a real project that produces numbers that mean something that
> they have a stake in.
>
> Their future depends on how fairly our votes are counted. Their
> engagement in the process before they are allowed to
> vote could be a good motivator for participation when they do become
> eligible. Finally, young people are the ultimate
> non-partisan constituency. If corrupt adults are considering fraud with
> e-voting machines, or if the machines simply do
> not work and citizens, especially young ones, are auditing the election in
> a way that is as reliable as a professional exit
> poll outfit, and without the conflicts that corporate control of data
> brings - then it might deter fraud and inspire the
> manufacturers of the machines to make/test products that reliably count
> votes.
>
> So, I hope you have some brilliant suggestions or like the ones I have
> proposed enough to get involved in a way that
> would give it credibiltiy.
>
> Thanks so much for listening and all that you've done already to preserve
> our right to have our votes count.
>
> Take care,
>
> Sue
> "The most violent element in society is ignorance." Emma Goldman
Susan-
I'm a little overwhelmed by the breadth of your message. I think that
local citizens watching the process is essential to safeguarding our
election system. Whatever laws or procedures we manage to establish, they
will be easily subverted if there aren't people like you present in the
polling places, standing guard against hanky-panky.
I don't think, however, that exit polling is how non-professionals can be
most useful. This is because (1) you have to have a larger sample than a
few people can put together in order to be statistically convincing, and (2)
you have to have the credibility of a Mitofsky or a Zogby to get attention
from the press. So my opinion is that you can be most useful by deterring
bad behavior with your presence, and by reporting publicly the bad behavior
that you witness.
BTW - the latest USCV paper referred to on the DU site is not really my
work, and I am in the process of having my name removed from it. It is more
contentious than I'm comfortable with - not just against our enemies but
against our friends as well.
-Josh
>
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