Please read. This is important. We must act now to make sure all votes are counted and counted accurately!
* Election integrity experts say irregularities are beginning to surface with the Prop. 8 vote count.
* People are needed in every county immediately to observe the post-election auditing processes.
* Training will be provided by telephone conference call Sunday, November 16 at 4:00 p.m. Advance sign-up for this free training is required.
* Help spread the word by forwarding this email.
The details:
Why question the announced results of the Prop 8 election?
* National Exit Poll showed Prop 8 LOSING before results were adjusted to match vote totals.
(Exit polls are used worldwide to detect election problems.)
* Targeted purging of voters may mean a huge number of "no" votes on Prop 8 are among hundreds of thousands of votes not yet counted. (See www.sos.ca.gov)
* Collected incident reports from voters and election observers indicate problems that need immediate investigation.
* Nearly all of California's votes (not just for Proposition 8, but for everything) are counted by computers that are known to count incorrectly and are vulnerable to both accidental and intentional problems that can affect vote counts.
* For more details, click this link.
Does this mean Proposition 8 was really defeated?
It's way too early to make any guesses about that. The early indications that the vote count may not be accurate only tell us that we must ask questions and seek the answers.
What needs to be done?
There's an immediate need for volunteers in all California counties to observe the processes that happen after an election. Some of the processes have happened already and the work continues daily, so we need to act fast.
These tasks aren't familiar to most people, so Velvet Revolution has set up a training for people who want to volunteer. The training will be held by telephone conference call on Sunday, November 16 at 4:00 p.m. More details are below.
What good does monitoring do?
Community election monitoring is a deterrent to some nefarious activity. Just the knowledge that they are being watched, especially being watched by a knowledgeable observer, can deter people from illegal activity. While most election officials and their staffs are honest, committed workers, the potential for corruption exists.
Monitoring is a deterrent to sloppy behavior. Elections officials and poll workers will be more vigilant knowing they are being watched and their mistakes could be publicized.
Monitors sometimes catch errors that can be corrected immediately by elections officials.
Information gathered can be used to improve future elections.
Monitors can make incident reports to election protection hotlines such as 1 (866) OUR-VOTE, adding their findings to thousands of comments aggregated and analyzed for patterns of election anomalies.
Community monitoring efforts can provide the basis for challenges to elections, including recounts initiated by the public or by candidates.
(See this link for more information about election monitoring.)
Who can participate in the training?
Anyone in California who is willing and able to volunteer at least four hours (preferably significantly more) over the next couple of weeks.
How does the telephone training work?
You sign up by sending email (see below). You will receive the call-in instructions by email. At 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, you follow those instructions to call in to the conference call. You'll be on the call with a trainer, a facilitator, and other volunteers. You will be able to ask questions. You'll also receive an information packet by email with additional training materials. We are not charging for this training. However, your phone company will charge you its regular long distance charges for the call. Please call from a land line if possible. We expect the training to be over by 5:30.
What if I want to volunteer and can't attend the training?
Email us as below, and tell us you can't attend. We will be recording the training and can make that recording available to you to listen at your convenience.
Who is sponsoring and conducting the training?
The training is a project of the Velvet Revolution Election Protection Strike Force, an election integrity organization. VR's Emily Levy will facilitate the training call. The trainer is Tom Courbat of SAVE R VOTE, an experienced election monitor from Riverside Co.
How do I sign up?
Click on the sign up link at the bottom of
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/2008/11/exit_poll_showed_californias_p.html">this blog item.
Please circulate this to anyone you think might be interested.
Emily Levy
Velvet Revolution Election Protection Strike Force