The focus of this CASE News email is the November General Election in Ohio. It includes some information and actions you can take to help more people vote. Updates will be sent as needed and will include projects coordinated by other election advocacy groups. Send comments, suggestions to ron@caseohio.org.
Feel free to forward as appropriate and invite others to join
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CASE_OH_News/ to get these updates. This group is not a discussion group so you will not get a lot of email.
Help Wanted (see below for details)
League of Women Voters Flyer on Voter ID/Registration (click here for link)
Many people do NOT yet know that ID will be required to vote! Available in English or Spanish.
You can tell your friends, help distribute, identify organizations that might want them, ask your Senator or Congressperson to publish in constituent newsletter.
Student Voter Guide
You can help identify student groups, college newspapers to send it to.
Election Day:
Statewide election hotline 866-OURVOTE (866-687-8683) goes live October 16. Spread the word.
You can work for your county as a poll worker. See below about learning what to look for and gathering incident reports.
You can gather posted precinct results, send in for comparison with official results
You can observe the election as a monitor/witness
You can help conduct a parallel election
Misc
You can challenge Ohio media to watch for election fraud
CASE News
CASE presented the Adopt A BOE program at the “Making Your Voter Count, A Voter’s Rights Forum” in Akron on Sept 10 (contact Eileen Goldman, eyeleen45@aol.com)
Phil Fry met with BOE officials in Darke & Shelby counties.
Pete Johnson & Stuart Wright met with Franklin County BOE Director Matt Damschroder
Ron met with Tom Hayes to discuss CASE recommendations for Cuyahoga County election improvements
Three members of CASE have been invited to participate in the Election Protection meetings, which include Common Cause, People for the American Way, the League of Woman Voters, and other organizations.
CASE News group (
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CASE_OH_News) created for activists who just want the highlights
Announcements
Sept 29-30: "We Count - A Conference about Fair Elections and Democracy" in Cleveland featuring Mark Crispin Miller, Bob Fitrakis, Bev Harris, Ron Baiman, Greg Coleridge and many more. Contact Victoria.Lovegren@case.edu or go to
www.wecount2006.org for more information or to register.
Oct 13-15: Voting Rights Revival” in Columbus featuring Steve Freeman, Bob Fitrakis, Doris Haddock, Cliff Arnebeck, and more (more info:
http://freepress.org/vrrc/)
Help Wanted Details
Voter Registration/ID (for details à Ron -
ron@caseohio.org)
LWVOH, CC, COHHIO, and Ohio Votes have published a flyer on how to check voter registration and what ID to bring (click here for flyer)
You can
Tell your friends. Send email to political (or non-political) groups.
Call a local library and ask them to put some flyers at the checkout desk.
Contact organizations that might distribute them (target audience includes students, low income, and senior voters in urban areas).
Contact your congressperson and ask them to publish the flyer information their newsletter. Call and offer to email them the flyer. Contact Ron if they want help condensing the material.
Student Voter Guide (for details à Phil -
phil@caseohio.org)
CASE student voters guide at www.caseohio.org (under New Voter Guides)
You can
Help identify colleges/universities and phone/email for student groups/newspapers across Ohio
Call (preferably) or email this groups and ask them to publish
Send contacts to Phil so we know which schools have been contacted
Project Post (for details à Vicki -
victoria.lovegren@case.edu,
www.ohiovigilance.org/ProjectPost/Index.html)
Ohio Vigilance & CASE Ohio are coordinating this effort to gather precinct level vote totals at as many precincts as possible. Then we compare our date with official results.
We have a list of counties that have said they will post results.
You can
Signup at Ohio Vigilance link above to visit precincts after closing, copy results and send them in
Gather the data in a spreadsheet/database
Participate as a poll worker on election day (for details à TBD, could be you)
Ohio counties will be particularly challenged by Voter ID requirements and need poll workers who care about fair elections.
There may be no better way to work for fair elections.
CASE is working with Pollworkers for Democracy to distribute information on what to look for and coordinate gathering of incident reports.
You can
Signup with your county to work on election day
Contact
so we can share information on what to look for and how to report incidents
Observe as monitor/witness
We expect details from other advocacy groups on an observer program which will be distributed.
Conduct a Parallel Election (for details à You?)
Ask voters leaving a polling place to fill out a parallel ballot
Count the results and compare to official results
Adopt A BOE (for details à Pete – pete@caseohio.org, Ron - ron@caseohio.org)
County Summary: have active volunteers: 15, tentative volunteers: 9.
Contact BOE (in person or via email)
Requires some chutzpah & patience, but not a lot of time
Understand their election process
Work constructively towards the common goal of fair elections
Provide expertise based on election process knowledge and experience at other BOE’s
Advocate for improvements
Challenge Ohio media that believe there was no fraud in 2004 to cover 2006 effectively (for details à You?)
You can
Write a plan on how we think a newspaper should cover the pre election, election, and post election phases of the election.
For example: clear & documented rules on Voter ID/Registration, fair allocation of voting machines, posting precinct results, post election check of DRE totals.
Send letters to each newspaper, ask them for their plans, and issue a press release.
Research (for details à John - john@caseohio.org)
Come up with citations from the Revised Code, media, etc. (e.g.,what types of ID are acceptable since HB 3).
CASE could use a team of folks doing this. Folks connected to law, media, political science may be especially good.
Help maintain CASE Website (for details à Phil - phil@caseohio.org)
Calendar of Events - needs regular inputs
Best Practices - needs to be reviewed and updated
Lawsuits - needs to be updated (Ohio only)
Media and Government Contacts - needs regular updating
News - we are no longer maintaining news - Should we?
Many, many more. Choose the area you are interested. Just get me the details and I can post it.
Post Election Citizen Audit (for details à You?)
Start planning for after November 7th. An organized post election audit and report should be done by BOE’s, but if they won’t maybe we should.
Validate vote totals (with hand count ballots or VVPAT for random precincts)
Validate provisional ballot count (by checking random sample of acceptions/rejections)
John, Pete, Phil, Ron, Stuart
www.caseohio.org
