A New Breed of Watchdog at the Polls

[DeepModem Mom]

WSJ: A New Breed of Watchdog For Election Day
By JUNE KRONHOLZ
November 6, 2006; Page B1

When Americans go to vote tomorrow, a new breed of activist will be on guard, monitoring polling stations for everything from voting-machine glitches to long lines to registration snafus.

Energized by disputed results in 2000 and 2004, they have left jobs as music conductors, real-estate agents and software engineers to form groups that expect to turn out thousands of volunteers who don't trust the country's ability to count its votes and have decided to do something about it....

Many of the groups share liberal roots, their members smarting from the narrow Democratic losses in the last two presidential elections. But they also share in Ms. Kuznik's assurances -- and the tax and lobbying status that requires them to remain nonpartisan -- that they simply want to see a clean count....

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Two of the bigger groups -- the Election Protection Coalition and Voter Action -- will staff call centers where they will field voter complaints to their 866-OUR-VOTE and 888-SAV-VOTE numbers and dispatch lawyers to any trouble spots. Video the Vote is enlisting "citizen journalists" to film polling-place problems. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and People for the American Way are among Election Protection's members. Voter Action is a legal-rights group started by California lawyer Lowell Finley, who sued voting-machine maker Diebold Inc. over software security; Diebold recently paid $2.6 million to California as part of a settlement of the suit.

Pollworkers for Democracy -- a joint project of VoteTrustUSA, and two groups who often support progressive causes, Mainstreet Moms and Working Assets -- is asking election workers to report voting problems to the group after finishing their precinct shifts to provide evidence for potential lawsuits and recounts. And dozens of small, grass-roots groups will be watching polling stations, elections offices and tabulation centers....

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116278270779014105-caaDaLvZZr86595M3_wKogiXnk0_20071106.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

[keepCAblue]

1. This is our best defense against rethuglican election fraud

My partner and I are pollworkers this year, for the first time ever. And I'll be observing the day-after DRE audit in my county as well.