Today at the DNC Excecutive Committee meeting, which was aired on C-Span, there was a critical accouncement concerning the DNC's plans for election reform. The DNC is launching a National Lawyers Council dedicated to both voting reform and voting rights. The Council will be national but will be decentralized so that there are lawyers who work with caucus chairs and local groups at the state and local levels in each state.
The Council is comprised of the 17,000 some lawyers who were involved with the Kerry campaign, plus lawyers who will be added as they volunteer. Chairman Dean recognized that "we do know these voting machines do have significant problems and we need accountability for those machines" as well as noting that we need to stop voter suppression/protect voting rights.
There are five lawyers who are key partners in the council (and I hope I have spelled their names right). They are Eric Holder, former deputy U.S. attorney general, Arlene Myerson, Disability and Rights advocate, Yolanda Rios, voting rights advocate, and Paul Igasaki, former EEOC vice chair. Their director is Anna Martinez, who was formerly with the Voting Rights section of the Justice Department and has been with the Voting Rights Institute of the DNC.
Mark Brewer, the DNC vice chairman, mentioned that this Council is already helping in Michigan to write the election reform legislation there, as well as ballot initiative legislation in case the Republicans block the reform legislation.
So, these lawyers are there to work with local voting reform/voting rights groups in EACH and EVERY state. You need to be aware of it to get the local groups in your state in touch with them.
Key here is writing election reform legislation that provides a voter-verified paper BALLOT, plus SECURITY both in ballot casting as well as counting and recording. Several states are working on this already; please check to see what is happening in your state. A list of election reform/rights groups in your state can be found at www.votersunite.org.
I encourage you to contact them and to talk about providing not just legal council but also (VERY IMPORTANT) technical counsel. I understand that some of the voting rights groups/experts do "teach-ins" about technical issues/security for legislators, including Rebecca Mercuri
http://www.notablesoftware.com/evote.htmland Ellen Theissen at www.votersunite.org.