Monitor Election Problems Nationwide with OurVoteLive.org

[sonias]

This is damn cool! Incident reports for the whole country including Texas. Check out your county and see what's going wrong now. This is why we need to report any problems with voting in Texas. Tracking helps us get better legislation!

Today, EFF launched the public face of "Our Vote Live"
www.ourvotelive.org, the redesigned incident reporting system that the
Election Protection Coalition is using to record calls made to the
866-OUR-VOTE hotline. Incident information is available in
near-real-time (updates every 20 minutes) and can be reviewed now. As
with previous systems, no personally-identifiable information is
available for public review.

The system hosts approximately 9,600 reports at the moment, which
includes reports going back to mid-August when we switched over from the
beta version we used in the primaries. As you might expect, call volume
to the hotline is rapidly increasing, with over 1,000 reports per day
(including problems as well as information inquiries) late last week.

A much-requested feature -- the ability to download all reports in a
spreadsheet -- will be up and running later this week, as will a handful
of other features and upgrades.


>From the joint press release:
Monitor Election Problems Nationwide with OurVoteLive.org

Search by State or County for Real-Time Voter Reports on
Election Day

San Francisco - Reporters, bloggers, and voters across the
country can monitor problems at the polls on Election Day
on OurVoteLive.org, a project built and hosted by the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of Election
Protection, the nation's largest nonpartisan voter
protection coalition, and its toll-free voter-assistance
hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE.

OurVoteLive.org collects and analyzes reports from calls to
the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline, which is staffed by hundreds of
volunteers across the country. Tested during the
presidential primaries, the site is already documenting
over a thousand examples per day of voters needing
information or reporting problems such as registration and
identification issues, difficulties with voting machines,
and polling place accessibility issues. Over 200,000 calls
are expected to come into the hotline and be documented on
OurVoteLive.org through Election Day.

"Improved transparency in all aspects of the electoral
process is critical to ensuring accurate results as well as
diagnosing systemic problems and helping voters," said EFF
Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "OurVoteLive.org is
helping the Election Protection Coalition make that
possible."

In addition to call incident data, OurVoteLive.org also
features maps, nationwide trend information, and an active
election issues blog that will highlight important election
incidents as they develop.

"OurVoteLive.org will allow us to help more voters more
effectively," said Jonah Goldman, director of the National
Campaign for Fair Elections at the Lawyers' Committee for
Civil Rights Under Law, which leads Election Protection.
"We -- along with election officials and the media -- will
be able track trends and identify problem areas quickly so
that we can remove any barriers that voters face as they
cast their ballots."

Election Protection has more than 100 partners at the
national, state and local level and is providing live voter
protection services now through Election Day across all 50
states. On November 4, Election Protection will mobilize
tens of thousands of volunteers, including 10,000 legal
volunteers to monitor polling places, educate voters,
facilitate a dialogue with local and state officials,
provide legal support to poll monitors, and answer the
1-866-OUR-VOTE voter services hotline -- a monumental
undertaking designed to ensure smooth voting in November.


On Election Day, reporters who have questions about
OurVoteLive.org or particular incidents reported on the
site should contact Nell McGarity via email at
press @ ourvotelive.com or by phone at 202-262-0721.

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/10/26

About EFF
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/


About Election Protection
Election Protection is the nation's largest nonpartisan
voter protection coalition, led by the Lawyers' Committee
for Civil Rights Under Law. Through its 1-866-OUR-VOTE
hotline [phone]) and dedicated team of legal
experts and trained volunteers, Election Protection helps
all American voters, including traditionally
disenfranchised groups, gain access to the polls and
overcome obstacles to voting, offering live assistance. The
coalition has more than 100 partners at the national, state
and local level and is providing live voter protection
services now through Election Day for all 50 states. For
more information about Election Protection and the
1-866-OUR-VOTE Hotline, please visit: www.866ourvote.org.

[sonias]

1. Check out the reports for Harris

Harris county

Reports of vote flipping and registration issues.

Where is the report of the sign posted in the polling location? I though someone (Citizen Penn?) was going to report that. Did the issue get resolved?

Sonia

[sonias]

2. NAACP sets up hot line - Texas

AAS 10/30/08
NAACP sets up hot line for people to report election problems
Group also working to help people displaced by Hurricane Ike to vote.

By David C. Doolittle
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Texas branch of the NAACP is closely watching the elections at a time when minority turnout is expected to be high. During a news conference Wednesday, officers said they have set up a hotline for voters to report intimidation and other complaints and are working to ensure displaced Galveston residents get a chance to vote.

Officials with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said they have seen several instances of voter intimidation and impediments to voting across the state, including repairing a water main near the driveway of a voting location in Dallas and a warrant roundup during early voting in Bell County.

(snip)

State branch President Gary Bledsoe said turnout in Galveston is projected to be about 55 percent of the county's 180,000 registered voters. Collins said the problems facing Ike evacuees include not having the means to return to Galveston to vote or not receiving mail-in ballots on time because they have moved repeatedly since the storm. Collins also said some who have returned to Galveston have lost certain forms of identification, making it more difficult to vote.

The article didn't include the phone number - duh!

So I looked it up myself:

http://www.texasnaacp.org/
The Texas NAACP will have a voter protection program in place for the early voting as well as the general elections. We will have a staff set up in the state office to handle complaints that we may receive. The numbers you can dial to report an incident are:
1-866-888-8771 - Texas NAACP Hotline
1-512-322-9547 - Texas NAACP State Office Number

:kick:

Sonia

[sonias]

3. ACLU Texas Voter's Hotline

ACLU 2008 General Election Voter Hotline
Voters Can Call 1-877-523-2792
If They Encounter Irregularities at the Polls

AUSTIN – The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas today asked voters to watch for irregularities at polling places and urged voters to report problems to election officials and the ACLU Election Hotline.

The ACLU Voting Rights Project has launched a toll free hotline so voters can report voting rights violations and irregularities.

"This is one of the most important elections in our nation’s history and a record turnout is expected," said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. Because of the sheer numbers expected at the polls for early voting and on Election Day, there will undoubtedly be some problems. Most situations can and will be resolved easily and on the spot. However, voters with unresolved issues and concerns should contact our Election Hotline."

Voters with complaints are encouraged to call the toll-free Election Hotline, 1-877-523-2792. The Election Hotline is available 8 am to 5 pm weekdays and will be available 5 am to 11 pm on Election Day, November 4.

VOTING IRREGULARITIES TO WATCH FOR:

• Poll watching activities that go beyond mere observation and become harassment. For example, poll watchers taking photos of voters, asking for I.D. or wearing attire that looks like law enforcement uniforms.
  
  
• Disinformation campaigns, such as posting fliers in minority neighborhoods or near the polls prior to elections which give false information. For example, signs advising that people with unpaid traffic tickets are liable to be arrested if they vote or that ex-felons can't vote. Texas law allows felons who have completed their sentences to vote.
  
  
• Moving polling places on short notice or without sufficient warning, and, if the jurisdiction is covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, making the change without pre-clearance.
  
  
• Inserting phony voters in lines at the polls to lengthen the lines and discourage would-be voters from getting in line.
  
  
• Any other voter intimidation or suppression practices.
  
  
• Polling place difficulties such as problems casting provisional ballots, polls opening too late or closing too early, and lack of access to centralized voter registration records.
  
  
• Problems with voting machines, including both human errors and technology-related problems.
  
  
• Efforts to tamper with voting machines or otherwise affect the outcome of the election.
  

For more information on the ACLU Voting Rights Project, go to: www.aclu.org/votingrights.

:kick:

Sonia