Saving the vote
Encapsulates and coordinates several strands - Black Box Voting, GOTV, Voter Intimidation a la Herbert's excellent column yesterday, Government corruption from the Governor's office (Jeb!) to the congress to the pResident.
Krugman strikes again! He outlines the potential problems and the impact of those problems on our Democracy.
He also outlines concrete steps that can and should be taken to preserve the integrity of the vote.
- Demand a paper ballot.
- Vote absentee
- Independent auditors and security for the ballots, the computers, and the balloting places.
- Independent, 3rd party exit polling
I would add my own prescriptions to the mix:
A) National Sick Day: Everyone who can, take the day off from work, vote early, and spend the rest of the day volunteering, coordinating, driving, recording, monitoring, or whatever needs to be done...
see the extended box for a provisional plan. Copy it, steal it, work it, use it...whatever.
[editor's note, by RedDan] I have tried to follow the excellent suggestions of many of the commentators - thanks so much for your help!
Update [2004-8-17 0:46:34 by RedDan]: As suggested in comments, if you decide to take this kind of action, your FIRST step is to coordinate with, volunteer at, and put yourself in the service of the local campaign headquarters. Doing so does NOT mean subsuming your individual initiative, however, and if they seem disinterested or disorganized, TAKE THE BIT IN YOUR TEETH...get a band of brothers and sisters together, put together an action list of this sort, and present yourselves at campaign HQ as a team...they will use you.
V-Day - Election day this year should be viewed as, and approached as, a battle.
Recent statements from the Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission(Soaries) regarding "procedure for postponing or canceling elections" and "coordinating security agencies with voting oversight officials," coupled with recent reports of the Bush/Cheney campaign contacting conservative churches and requesting membership lists and explicit (and possibly unconstitutional) assistance, coordination, and support indicate that a serious, coordinated, and integrated effort to get out the vote, monitor and facilitate the voting process, coordinate transport, legal, and operational assistance and to organize and mobilize the Democratic voting public is required. It is clear from the current spate of news stories that the GOP is testing, refining, and implementing their GOTV tactics and strategy, and sending up trial balloons regarding various ways and means of delaying, circumventing and/or suborning the vote. Below is a detailed outline of a plan for such a mobilization. Some aspects of this outline may already be covered by the numerous institutions already working on GOTV, voting assistance and etc. Explicit coordination and integration is paramount.
- 1. Identify:
- a. Key Areas - down to city, district, precinct levels.
- b. Operatives and Volunteers - in the area of interest.
- c. Meeting Points - centrally located in critical districts or precincts
- d. Transport Services - bus companies, community/personal/church vans
- e. Routes - from central meeting points to polling locations.
- 2. Contact:
- a. Community Leaders - union, church, activist, precinct/government
- b. Operatives and Volunteers - email, blogs, phone, chats, etc
- c. Local Party - via DNC
- d. Legal Services - ACLU, NLG, CCR, SPLC, & etc.
- 3. Create:
- a. Lists - Mailing, e-mail, phone trees, chat-boards, message center
- b. Documents - Legal materials, maps, contact people, procedure
- c. Legal Hotline - voting laws, challenge laws, roadblock, search, etc.
- d. Checklists and Action Kits - including all of the above
- 4. Coordinate:
- a. Voter Registration - w/ACT, AmericaVotes, MoveOn, etc.
- b. Meetings and Meet-ups - w/DFA, CFA, Kerry, etc.
- c. Volunteer Activities - via above and community grps (NAACP?)
- d. Legal Services and Availability
- e. Fundraising (explicitly for transport services)
- f. "National Sick Day"? - everyone who can, take Nov. 2 off from work...
- 5. Track:
- a. Polling locations
- b. Election Officials and Poll-watchers/officers
- c. Checkpoint/Roadblock locations - bottlenecks
- d. Weekly (to Oct 15), Daily (to Nov. 2)
- 6. Implement:
- a. Transport - Voters to central point via van, buses to polls
- b. Facilitation - Food and drink at central points?
- c. Observation - Legal observers at polls, checkpoints, roadblocks, etc
- i. Lawyers
- ii. Video/Camera
- iii. Legal hotline
- d. Action teams
- i. At meeting point (headcounts, doc check, coordinate)
- ii. At roadblocks
- iii. At polls
- e. Coordination between teams.
- i. Forward observers
- ii. Local facilitators
- iii. Regional and local coordinators
- iv. Legal strategy
Pursuant to the above outline, below are several steps that may be useful in implementing and carrying out an effective GOTV AND election-day strategy:
Creation of information and communication clearinghouses:
Legal resources, including advisory resources, legal consultants, documents, and proper forms and filing procedures.
Transportation, including contacts with bus companies, taxi/limo services, volunteer drivers, maps and routing, and the locations of polling stations.
Official contacts with party operatives, police, election boards and officials.
Local contacts with church, union, activist, and community groups.
Help-desk or facilitator service for each region/district/precinct.
Financial services to coordinate funding and payment for needed materiel and services.
Logistics and coordination to communicate between teams and management.
Geography to maintain and manage the necessary locations and to route resources, keep people working in the needed areas, and to direct efforts at useful targets.
All should be linked via email, web-chat or blog, phone and/or fax, and should share common phone trees and email lists.
Organization should be hierarchical, with precinct communicating to ward or district, ward or district communicating with city or county, and city or county communicating to state. This will prevent mass overwhelming of campaign HQ on the day of the vote.
Action teams: each precinct should have an "Action Team" assigned to each polling site, with more action teams for higher population precincts.
Each action team should consist of individuals or groups responsible for the following tasks:
Legal services and contacts
Transportation coordination
Tracking officials and polling station locations (which DO change!)
Coordinating with local groups
Coordinating with local party outlets
Action team coordinator and communication with District Coordinator
Help-desk, phone bank, messenger, message taker/sender
Runner, copier, faxer, materiel gatherer.
Materials and Supplies needed:
- Cell Phones
- Walkie-talkies
- Bullhorn
- Laptop/PDA with wireless or WiFi capability
- Maps (large format, roads, districts, political precincts, neighborhood, etc)
- Vehicle (more is better)
- Posterboard, Markers, Ductape, Sticks, Stapler, Staples
- Whiteboard and Markers, Corkboard and Pushpins
- Access to photocopier and fax (i.e. Kinko's) and prepaid copy card, fax card
- Phone lists, email lists, contact lists
- Police
- Local News
- District Coordinator, HQ
- Hotlines (legal, document, financial, etc)
- Bail Bondsman (!!)
- Camera and/or Videocamera, Tape recorder
- Notepads, pencil, pens
- First Aid Kit
- M/FM radio, TV.
- "Home Base" - union hall, church, personal residence to use as base of operations.