BBV: January 2004 Action Plan

[GregD]

I'm re-posting this response that I offered in another thread - I'm hoping folks will take this to heart and become engaged in this effort. December has been rather slow in the land of BBV advocacy, and we are hoping folks will kick it back into gear; time is quickly advancing.

Needless to say, others may have further requested actions, but the following discussion covers projects we had in progress as we entered the Holiday season, and we are hoping you will rejoin these efforts to advance the cause.

Please keep in mind that this is seriously a non-partisan issue. Regardless of your worries concerning BFEE and so on, please don't frame this as a partisan issue, or we won't get the bills passed. And seriously - it is NOT a partisan issue. Anyone can lose with these machines, simply through program error or system malfunction (notwithstanding any purposeful mischief), and we have instances of both sides losing in recent elections because of these machines.

If we cannot rely upon the accuracy of the count, no matter what our political persuasion might be, how can we possibly hope for our voice to be heard. This issue has to be soundly resolved, and it needs to happen this year.


Public Hearings and Town Hall Meetings
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If you are in CA, please attend the Jan 15 meeting in Sacramento when the next phase of the CA/Diebold audit will be revealed. At the December meeting, we were outnumbered by Diebold and ESS staff - that has got to be reversed this time!

And there are upcoming forums in Atlanta and Texas - dates/locations tbd.

HR2239 & S1980
==============
Many of you spent time last year working on securing Congressional support for HR2239, and asking Senators to introduce a similar bill. Well, S1980 (Graham FL-D) is a virtual photocopy of HR2239 (Holt NJ-D). Not perfect, but a good start.

We need them passed, as soon as possible, and there are ongoing initiatives that you can help with.

1) Graham and Holt both want us to present endorsements of organizations who support these bills. These organizations already have signed on http://www.verifiedvoting.org/endorsers_s1980.asp and organizations that wish to support the bills should use this form http://www.verifiedvoting.org/hr2239_s1980_add_endorsement.asp

2) There are still 3 weeks until Congress returns to session, and we need you to go see your legislators (whether they have advocated a position on this or not) and express your concern. It's amazing how those people lose touch with what WE want when they return to the beltway. So go see them and talk about it. If you determine that your legislator is available for meetings, or attending a public event, there is a link to report that information on the state pages here: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/states.asp

3) We always need phone calls and letters to be sent to legislators, and you should be telling everyone you know about this issue.


University Campaign
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We have a volunteer who is developing a campaign to get university students, nationwide, involved in a petition gathering effort. The goals of this effort will be to gain significant numbers of signatures, while communicating the BBV message as wide as possible. We need to develop wider awareness of this issue before it is too late to do anything about it. If you would like to be involved in this campaign, please contact us; we need folks all over the country for this one.


Election Monitors
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It seems inevitable that there will be a need for nationwide election observers - everywhere we possibly can place them. Building such a campaign will be a significant effort, and will need to be formed as a bi-partisan effort. We are in discussions concerning such a plan, and may have more to report as those plans advance. If you have ideas on how to implement this, please contact us and we will connect you with other interested parties.

This effort needs to start right away, as it will involve creating and documenting guidelines, recruiting volunteers, conducting training sessions, and so on. This project alone will likely take all year to implement.


Voter Registration
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Make sure EVERYONE you know gets out and votes. That means you must make certain NOW that they are all registered and aware of the importance of this election. So please get involved in voter-registration efforts, as this will help regardless of the e-voting issue.


Let us know if you have ideas, questions, etc.


www.VerifiedVoting.org
[e-mail]

[shirlden]

1. We have to keep on keepin' on

BBV is just too serious an issue.
Please join in this effort.


:kick:

[dan shays]

2. How about a January 2005 Action plan!

Hey, just got onboard and am trying to spread the word on a potential contingency plan should the Bush regime pull off another coup next November. For now i'm just trolling for input. Here's what i have:

Recall those days of yesteryear when hordes of Repugnican activists
descended on Florida to rant & rave about the vote count, the whole fiasco leading to the enthronement of the Bush regime? Recall the lack of opposing forces during those dark hours? NEVER AGAIN! We need a contingency plan. Hook your activist wagon to the PEOPLES PLEDGE OF RESISTANCE, a potential list of outraged U.S. citizens pledged to non-violent direct action for democracy in the event of another theft of a U.S. presidential election.
This is a work-in-progress, your ideas and participation are encouraged. Contact us at: <[e-mail]>
Peoples Pledge of Resistance, coming soon to a search engine near you.

[ramblin_dave]

3. Town Hall meeting - Atlanta: scheduled for January 29

http://www.verifiedvoting.com/article_text.asp?articleid=1029