Washington Citizens for Fair Elections -

Call to Action

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:41:46 -0400

As we all know, the Executive's reckless plan calls for new Diebold
tabulators, VoteHere's ballot tracker, computerized signature
verification, and some other bad ideas. The county council vote will
happen before their August recess.

A core group of us have been meeting a few times a week. Studying,
researching, writing, etc. We now have all the information we need to
make our case. Briefly:

- these risky changes endanger the presidential election, Nov 2008

- these changes cannot achieve the Executive's stated goal of early
election results

Now we step up the effort. Messaging, getting the word out,

What Happened to Election Reform in the Legislature

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:39 -0400

Start: Jun 26 2007 - 7:00pm

End: Jun 26 2007 - 9:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-8

Body:

1. An update on King County's plan to buy new Diebold equipment for
counting ballots.

2. A Discussion on state election reform legislation with:
State Senator Eric Oemig, 45th District
Marcee Stone, Washington Public Campaigns
John King, Washington Public Campaigns

Several significant election reform bills on topics such as public financing for elections, and audit requirements for optical scan tabulators were introduced in the last session, but did not pass. What were the bills and what happened to them? What can be done in the future to advance election reform?

Protect Our Secret Ballot

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:27:05 -0400

Start: May 1 2007 - 7:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-8

Body:

King County is planning to adopt mail ballot tracking. This is more than envelope tracking. It adds a unique barcode to each ballot which is tied to the voter's id. This eliminates the secret ballot, taking away all voter privacy.

AGENDA

1) Greeting

2) Discuss Public Hearing Monday May 14th

King County's Citizen Election Oversight Committee has a hearing to receive public on the Vote By Mail business case. This includes mail ballot tracking and new Diebold ballot counting systems. We will discuss information packets covering WCFE's issues and concerns. We'll encourage everyone to attend the hearing and testify.

Fair Elections Meeting - Tuesday Dec. 12

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:50:32 -0500

Start: Dec 12 2006 - 6:00pm

End: Dec 12 2006 - 8:30pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-8

Body:

You are invited to the December meeting of Wa Citizens for Fair Elections

Many failures of the election system were observed around the nation
on Nov. 7, with many voters losing their voice because of voter
suppression and computers that "lost" their votes. Almost nowhere
are elections validated for accuracy and inclusiveness. Citizens
are responding by organizing efforts for election oversight in their
communities, including King County. We will discuss local election
integrity efforts, including an ongoing effort in King County to
conduct a recount of a small number of precincts by hand.

August meeting

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:40:46 -0400

Start: Aug 22 2006 - 6:00pm

End: Aug 22 2006 - 9:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-8

Body:

Topics: 1. Report on Election activism around the country, featuring a
conference call report by an activist from another state
(to be revealed at meeting).
2. Proposal for an elected King County Auditor to run county elections.
This November, County voters will vote on whether to have an
elected auditor in charge of county elections (like other Wa counties).
What could be the benefits and liabilities?

There will be a potluck dinner from 6 pm to 6:45. Bring food to share. Paper plates, cups, and eating utensils will be provided.

Be a poll worker!

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:38:01 -0400

King County is still looking for poll workers this fall. Jason blogged about it at washblog.
http://www.washblog.com/story/2006/8/18/92058/6449

Call 296-VOTE today to sign up!

June Business Meeting

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 00:05:54 -0400

Start: Jun 27 2006 - 7:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-8

Body:

This will be our regular business meeting for June. We will be discussing by-laws, recent actions regarding fight forced mail voting and upcoming plans, both short-term and long term.

May monthly meeting

Mon, 15 May 2006 14:26:23 -0400

Start: May 25 2006 - 7:00pm

End: May 25 2006 - 9:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-8

Body:

The next meeting of Washington Citizens for Fair Elections will occur on Thursday, May 25, at 7 pm in Ballard at the home of Julie Goldberg. We will NOT have our usual potluck dinner before the meeting.

There is no speaker planned for this month. The meeting will be entirely discussion of such topics as: draft of by-laws for Fair Elections, the Vote by Mail situation in King County, plans for the June and July meetings, and other topics. In June, the meeting will return to our usual time of the fourth Tuesday, and we will have a speaker. The planned topic is the Voter Registration Database.

Protest 100% Vote By Mail

Sun, 14 May 2006 21:33:55 -0400

Start: May 17 2006 - 12:30pm

End: May 17 2006 - 1:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-8

Body:

Change your voter registration from absentee to poll station ballots.

Continued efforts to undermine the integrity of our elections must be stopped. Adopting 100% vote by mail is like punching holes into a boat's haul.

Using mail ballots is much less secure, more expensive, and more complex than poll voting. And yet, King County Executive Sims, the Council, and the Elections Department are fast tracking the change
over to 100% vote by mail.

Our elections must be open, fair, and verifiable. To preserve the integrity of our elections, we must oppose 100% vote by mail.

Fixing Elections

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 22:34:18 -0500

Start: Apr 25 2006 - 6:30pm

End: Apr 25 2006 - 10:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-8

Body:

Panel discussion on election integrity. Plus food and music!

Speakers are Holly Jacobson (cofounder of Voter Action) and Paul Lehto (Attorney, plantiff in Lehto v Snohomish Co & Sequoia Voting Systems), Rep. Toby Nixon (web site), and Richard Borkowski (Computer Consultant, Activist).

Music. Food. Tables for election reform groups.

March Meeting

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:59:29 -0500

Start: Mar 26 2006 - 6:00pm

End: Mar 26 2006 - 9:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-8

Body:

6:00 Doors Open (Potlatch food, drink.)
7:00 Meeting Starts

King County Elections will be discussed.

To Jason

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 17:03:10 -0500

Jason, many thanks for the three resolutions. Lea and I will be attending the caucus tomorrow and will definitely submit them. Bob Simpson

Resolutions for Precinct Caucuses

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:31:34 -0500

On Saturday, March 4, republicans and democrats across Washington State will be attending their precinct caucuses. A few of us put together three election-reform resolutions for these caucuses. We're asking folks to print them out and bring them to their caucuses.

Resolution for Voter Verified Paper Ballots
http://wafairelections.org/vvpb-resolution

Resolution Opposing 100% Vote By Mail Elections
http://wafairelections.org/vbm-resolution

Resolution for Restoration of Felon Voting Rights
http://wafairelections.org/restoration-resolution

Automatic Restoration of Voting Rights

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:26:01 -0500

Whereas Washington State has the most restrictions on voting by
ex-felons in the nation, worse than any other state,

Whereas ex-felons in Washington State cannot vote until after they have
paid in full all restitution and fees, resulting in more than 15,000
citizens being disenfranchised every year,

Whereas hundreds of felons who have paid their debts do not get their
voting rights restored due to inadvertent bureaucratic errors,

Whereas the American Correctional Association (ACA) has called for
ending the practice of withholding voting rights from parolees and
people who have completed their prison terms,

Resolution Against 100% Vote-By-Mail

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:24:14 -0500

Whereas Vote by Mail (VBM) denies voters their secret ballot, opening the door to stolen ballots, vote-selling, voter coercion and other forms of vote fraud,

Whereas large-scale absentee balloting has been around for at least ten years yet is still riddled with problems, as was demonstrated in the contentious gubernatorial race of 2004, (Examples of problems include lost ballots, signature verification problems, ballots lost in the mail. All the large-scale problems in 2004 came from the absentee ballot process.)

Whereas 100% VBM is more expensive than our current hybrid system of mixed absentee balloting and poll voting,