Everyone is anticipating long lines on November 4, why isn’t anyone (read: Obama campaign with your wide-reaching grassroots resources) taking a proactive approach to make local election officials truly accountable for their respective polling places?
Visit ElectionPreparedness.com for more information.
The images I remember most from the 2004 Presidential election – long ass lines. And by long, we’re talking up to 10 - 14 hours. God bless those folks, after an hour or so I would most certainly leave - and hopefully come back at a non-peak time.
16 days until the Election.
What can we do to ensure a transparent and efficient election in our local neighborhood??? Make your local election official accountable! No matter your party affiliation, all eligible US citizens want to be able to vote on Election Day, without spending hours in line.
Why aren’t we putting pressure on local election officials to disclose their expectations and contingency plans for Election Day? I mean, nothing makes people more accountable than having them sign off on a disaster preparedness plan in advance. Whatever happened to the 2004 election officials who were responsible for the polling places that had 10+ hour wait lines?!?
So let’s put some election officials to the fire! Get the grassroots organized and have them DEMAND a meeting. If the election officials are "too busy" – call in the local media, flood the blogs, etc. When a meeting actually happens, have the officials give clear answers to some fundamental questions:
- Confirm what is the required voter identification information that is being conveyed to poll workers? The response to this should be widely publicized so that there are NO QUESTIONS on Election Day.
- How many people are you expecting at your polling place? There is no excuse for underestimating this with today’s polling data.
- What will your polling place employ – paper ballots, what kinds of e-voting machines, etc?
- What is your Plan B if e-voting machines break down?
- How many provisional ballots will there be at each precinct?
- If you are depending on paper ballots, what is your plan B if you run out?
- Who will poll workers contact if they need more ballots or if they have problems with e-voting machines?
- At what point, i.e., how many paper or provisional ballots are still available for voters, should poll workers call to seek more ballots?
How will poll workers be able to communicate immediately with responsible election officials If they have any other questions?
What can citizens do if they have problems voting?
It seems to me that these are some pretty basic questions that local election officials can address. And I really don’t think it’s asking too much to have them sign off on answers to the above. Come Election Day – let’s make sure that their responses are followed. And for those who are running an inefficient election administration, let’s EXPOSE them. They’ve had ample time to request additional resources.
It is certainly understandable that polling places are going to be overwhelmed. This is, after all, an historic election. Make the people in "power" accountable. Ask appropriate questions. And if they fall short on Election Day – let’s make sure that our request for accountability happens well in advance before the next election.