Everyone seen Common Cause's Report

[JoMama49]

I assume everyone has already seen this report, and the testimony going on today in Washington with several Congressman, both R & D's in attendance? If not, go to their site: www.Commoncause.org
and read about it. Apparently, there is a conference call tonight at 9:0 p.m. Eastern time when the highlights of this day will be broadcast. Anyone know how to tap in to that conference call?
JoMama.

[IAMREALITY]

1. I don't believe

I have seen this yet.

Great Report.

Thank You

[jamboi]

2. Hot stuff! n/t

[skids]

3. Someone needs to send this to the international....

vote monitors.

Thanks for posting this, I knew the report was being presented, but I only glazed over the page and didn't realize the report was already online.

[JoMama49]

4. I received an email from usvip.org

This was an email to me from usvip.org, the US Voting Integrity Project. There you will see info about the conference call. Here's something I also just received in an email: WBAI is covering the Hearing tomorrow in addition to CSPAN, although I don't see Mr. Blackwell's name in this list??!!

Pacifica Radio Network Presents:

A Forum on Voting Discrepancies in Ohio
chaired by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. Live stream from Capitol
Hill
on www.wbai.org/tuner/html Wednesday, December 8th, 10am - 2pm
(Eastern time)
with Pacifica's National Affairs Correspondent Larry Bensky and KPFA
Morning Show host, Andrea Lewis

Discussion will focus on voting problems in Ohio and elsewhere,
particularly the disenfranchisement of Black voters.

Panel and Witnesses Invited include:

Ralph Neas, People For the American Way

Jon Greenbaum or Jonah Goldman, Lawyer Committee For Civil Rights
Under Law

Ellie Smeal from Feminist Majority

Bob Fitrakis, Free Press

Cliff Arnebeck

Rev. Jesse Jackson

John Bonifaz, National Voting Institute

Steve Rosenfeld, producer

Hilary Shelton, NAACP

Greg Moore, NAACP Voting Fund

Greg Palast

Dorri Steinhoff (CASE Ohio)

Rep. Kucinch

Rep. Brown

Rep. Jones

Rep. Ryan

Rep. Nadler

Rep. Wexler

Rep. Scott

Madeline Albright, former Secretary of State

[s-cubed]

5. Info on conference calls - 8 pm EST tuesday 12/7

Last week we invited you to attend our day-long event Tuesday, Dec. 7 on voting and election reform, "Voting in 2004:  A Report to the Nation on America's Election Process ."  As I mentioned earlier, the conference begins at 8:30 a.m. and continues til 5:00 p.m. on Capitol Hill, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room G-50.  We will hear from members of Congress, voting experts and others who monitored the presidential election, and will paint the clearest picture to date as to what happened on Nov. 2. All panel discussions will be followed by question and answer sessions.  Here is our agenda for the conference.

We are happy to inform you that your response and interest in tomorrow's event has been overwhelming.  So far more than 500 of you have already RSVP'd online. The event is  open to the public, press, Members of Congress, congressional staff and the academic community. 

We have also heard from many of you who do not live in the Washington D.C. metro area, but are interested in learning more about the event, and about what isgoing on in states like Ohio. 

To accommodate you, we are  setting up a nationwide conference call shortly after our conference ends on Tuesday. The call will begin at  8 pm ET. I will be on the call, along with John Bonifaz, founder and general counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute. Mr. Bonifaz is a  key leader in national election reform efforts, who is also trying to make sure all votes are counted as cast in the 2004 elections. 

If you would like to participate in this conference call, please sign up  to host a house party via our party host center .

We are using our online party center to distribute conference call codes to first 100 folks who sign up to host a party , because the number of lines we can make available for this conference call are limited.  We are encouraging you to set up this kind of community get together, using our online meeting tool at the grassroots level, because this allows us to get our message out to activists in greater numbers, and at the same time organize election activists at the local level.

Moreover, your house party can be simple--you'll probably already have holiday food on hand. Just invite some neighbors and friends for an informal and informative gathering.  These house parties will be a great opportunity for all of you to become leaders in the growing movement to work toward  meaningful election reform.  You'll have a chance to find out what we heard and learned in our Dec.7 conference, and the status of recounts of Ohio, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and elsewhere.

As always, if you have any comments and suggestions or would like to give us your feedback on our election reform agenda, please make sure to post them in the election related sections of our blog at http://www.commonblog.com/section/Elections

Thank you again for all you do for Common Cause.

Sincerely,

[New Earth]

10. Madeline Albright? wtf

that's pretty cool!!!!

[s-cubed]

6. WENT TO COMMON CAUSE MEETING TODAY

Attended most of forum today - will try to give report, but too tired now.
Audience was much more willing to use the F word than panelists
Most disappointing was the machine session. One of academics referred to Freeman study, but not very positively. (he practically got booed). Nevada SOS continued fiction by omission that whole state has paper record. I challenged this in a question, & then asked him point-blank durintg recess about the non-paper Sequoias & he confirmed that Las Vegas has these. Some of the panelists have bought into the myth that exit polls are garbage, inc NV SOS, even when members of audience challenged this by citing * & the Ukraine, and by citing other countries use of exit polls as an audit of the election. "My minds made up, don'e bother me with the facts." Sat next to staff member of Senator Dodd: promised to sent my e-mail with selected references. Meet other activists.

Best thing: all these groups that tried to avoid/prevent problems collected data. It's real evidence, not just anecdotes.

My biggest mistake: no flyer about march in DC this weekend. I will make one to take tomorrow to Conyers forum.

Wore my paper clip necklace: people responded well to message of solidarity for freedom and democracy, and short story of Norway and the German (not Nazi) invaders. This can work very well for us, I'm convinced.

Hope Duers don't mind, but when I asked questions of panelists, I identified myself as a PhD Systems Engineer, and a member of Democracy Underground, an online group which has been doing a lot of data mining and analysis. C-SPAN was there for the whole meeting: look for me!

[ailsagirl]

8. Thanks for the update!!

[cyn2]

9. We're honored that you're one of us! n/t

[s-cubed]

11. Thanks - as a pushy woman, got 2 chances to ask questions

[Kellis]

12. Heres to You !!

:toast:

WAY TO GO!


Thanks for the post OP!This is really good to hear.

[KoKo]

15. Scubed thanks so much for the info...I was looking all day for info on

this, but the post on DU had gone off to archives and I didn't know where to look. The Common Cause Site didn't give the personal update you did. I understand about the reluctance of "officials" to mention the "F" word. Had the same experience here in a meeting in NC.

I went to C-Span and couldn't find a link. Maybe they will broadcast in tomorrow or over the weekend, which they often do as a delayed coverage.

:toast: It's a long day to sit through all that...but appreciate your update and your being there!

[Eloriel]

13. Way cool!!!

Thanks

[Blue in the face]

17. That's awesome!

Scubed, thank you for getting involved and for passing this on...

[Farmgirl]

7. Here's some information I pulled from the Common Cause Blog..

Updates from "Voting in 2004" Conference
By Mike Surrusco
Posted on Tue Dec 07, 2004 at 11:32:31 AM EST

"Hi folks. Despite a rainy morning in Washington today, it was standing room only at the Dirksen Senate Office Bldg for our voting conference. The room filled up in a matter of minutes! Several members of Congress including Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) led off the event. Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) was also at the event. Chellie Pingree, President of Common Cause, who will be speaking to hundreds of supporters and election reform activists from across the country in a house party conference call tonight at 8 pm EST, is moderating the event.

PM Update (Murshed - 2:32 pm EST): Apparently CSPAN is still considering whether they should cover this event. If you would like to request CSPAN to cover this event, make sure to contact them. Also we have distributed the call in codes for tonight's conference call to all hosts who signed up online. If you still have not received your codes, please call us at 202-736-5732. If you are interested in getting on this call by putting together an impromptu get-together call us at the same number as well. Thank you.

PM Update II (Murshed - 4:27 pm EST): Just talked to Mary Boyle, our press secretary, who called in from the conference. Panelists are wrapping at this point. Per Mary the turnout for today's event has been incredible. Not only the room in Dirksen was filled up, people were crowding the hallways of the Senate Office Building. The passione and enthusiasm from activists and supporters who came to attend this event from all over the country made one thing emphatically clear - our public elected officials need to take concrete steps in implementing meaningful congressional reforms now."

:kick:

[Kellis]

16. Thanks for the info!

And


WELCOME to DU~:toast:

[Wordie]

14. Thanks for getting this info to us! Please keep us updated! n/t