NJ voting rights activists needed for Parallel Election Project (PEP)

[SmileMaker]

I'd like to try PEP for the NJ Gov. election - but am having trouble finding a group to coordinate volunteers and support the printing of ballots for carrying it out. ACLU has an election protection project that some of NJ's most ambitious voter rights activists are volunteering with, but the committee considers PEP partisan and will not support it. The last person I contacted suggested I contact the Dem Party b/c they'll have poll monitors and lawyers in place at the polls. I think that, if the Dems did this, it would be considered biased and discredited by the usual smear merchants - but at this point, I just want to be certain that ANYONE who represents voters does exit polling and I don't think there is anyone doing it!

Does anyone have any suggestions? If so, please provide e-mail/contact info for people who might support PEP anywhere in NJ - even if it' needs to begin with one controversial NJ polling place.


 Lynn Landes' website is a clearinghouse for info on this cool new idea.
http://www.ecotalk.org/ParallelElections.htm

 I'm willing to take leadership, but I'll need some bigger group on board to
mobilize volunteers and pay for ballot printing (depending on the scale we
might be able to take on-the bigger the better, of course!).

  Below are excerpts from a PEP story in FL. Lynn's site also has a good story from a San Diego mayoral race.

Both projects documented problems with e- voting and had excellent participation rates.


First “Grass Roots” Parallel Election Project

Coconut Creek, FL, March 8, 2005.

By Ellen H. Brodsky

 http://www.ecotalk.org/FirstParallelElection.htm


This project was so simple yet  proved more accurate and more powerful than
any exit poll and provided hard  evidence
as to machine programming problems and clarified voting irregularities.

...

186 voters passed our table by  the main entrance. 125 voted the Parallel
Election Ballot, 61 did not want to  participate.
We opened the Parallel Election Polling site at exactly 7 am the  same as
the Official Polling Site. We gave voters a
handout describing the  Parallel experiment and asked people to vote in the
official election and then  vote in the Parallel
Election exactly the same way they voted inside. We had the  voters sign a
register to indicate that they participated.
There was a section  on the bottom of the ballot for signing in the event of
an election challenge;  this area was sealed
with a glue stick by the voter and poll worker if the voter  needed help.
This made the voters more comfortable who were
concerned about the  secrecy aspect, however, most were not concerned with
this issue who  participated and welcomed
any follow-up and even wanted to be contacted if there  was an election
challenge. The voter did not have to sign the
ballot to  participate. Everyone who participated did so because they
thought it was a  great idea and understood it was
an important experiment. They were excited to  finally be able to check the
accuracy of the voting machines. 67.2% an
overwhelming majority of those that passed our setup in order to vote
enthusiastically participated. Most people were
really excited to participate  and felt this type of testing by the people
should have been a long time  ago.

....

Until legislation is passed that mandates  that voter-verified ballots be
counted manually at each precinct, compared
against the machine results and declared the official election result, this
is  the most transparent and accurate method of
reconciliation. This is the most  democracy enhancing, effective and
downright joyous way for the citizens to  mark, cast
and count their own ballots while comparing the accuracy of their  voting
machines. With all the lawsuits, election
challenges and shenanigans by  partisan election officials the Parallel
Election Project provides hard evidence  that
could be used in a court of law. This could be the start of something big,
if the citizens have the courage to take back their
elections and the elected  officials support them in the public interest.
Everyone considered it “OUR”  Project!