Emergency Measures to Protect the 2004 Vote Count
A Message from VotersUnite! in partnership with the National Ballot Integrity Project
Protect the 2004 Vote Count!
Transparency
means that ALL election processes can be observed by ordinary people –
that people can observe the process of counting votes, not just observe
computers processing votes. Transparent procedures will:
– Increase the likelihood of an accurate vote count.
– Avert a questionable federal election and national crisis.
– Reduce the potential for legal challenges to the elections in November.
Meet with your county leaders
and propose that votes for federal offices be manually counted as an
emergency measure to protect the accuracy of the vote count and protect
the county from legal challenges.
Emergency Measures To Protect The 2004 Vote Count
These
measures will help assure voters that votes were counted correctly and
will help protect counties from potential legal challenges to their
elections.
Please work to implement them in your county.
a.
All votes for federal offices will be counted by hand, in public view,
at the polling place before they are transmitted or transported to a
central facility.
b.
Precinct totals will be prominently posted at the polling place before
the ballots are transmitted or transported to a central facility.
c.
Ballots may be counted and aggregated electronically, in addition to
the hand-count. However, in any case where a discrepancy exists, the
hand-count will be considered the official result.
Talking Points
*Both major parties are forming networks of lawyers ready to challenge
questionable results. By conducting a manual count of votes for federal
office, counties can protect themselves from potential legal action.
*Voter-confidence is at an all-time low. By doing this manual count,
they can assure their constituents that the votes have been counted
correctly.
*It would take less than an hour in each precinct and could potentially
save the county hundreds of hours defending themselves in court or
confirming results by doing full recounts.
*In paperless precincts, it would require nothing more than the
addition of simple, inexpensive ballots able to handle a maximum of
four federal offices. The cost might be as low as 5 cents a ballot, if
they were printed at a local printer on cheap paper.
For additional procedures for optical scan voting machines, click here.
Tomorrow, Blog for Iowa will go into detail about how you can contact your Senators and your Congressman about this issue.
Blog For Iowa 