Anderson@Large

Jill Stein’s Vanity Recount

I am a founding member of the Election Verification Network. The membership includes University of Michigan computer science professor J. Alex Halderman, the computer science expert who sparked Jill Stein’s petition for a recount in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Since its founding, EVN has pushed for voter-verified paper ballots and a forensic audit of every election. So it’s not surprising that Alex and other members have latched on to calls for recounts in three states.

But Jill Stein’s vanity recount is not advancing election integrity. Instead, it’s setting back electoral reform.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorialized, it smacks of a “vanity project”:

Maybe ‘democracy’ will be served by Jill Stein’s quixotic moralizing. More likely, Jill Stein and the Green Party will be served.

Jill Stein may actually believe that demanding a recount of presidential tallies in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania will ensure that “democracy” is served.

More likely, she believes the Green Party will be served by her audacious PR stunt.

Either way, the Stein recounts are a colossal waste of money and energy when there is not a shred of credible evidence of fraud or error and when the final vote in these three states likely will not change very much.

Stein’s quixotic moralizing damages the credibility of the very institution she claims to protect — the sanctity of the ballot box.

Those who donated to Recount 2016 did so voluntarily. Stein paid the state of Michigan $787,500. But taxpayers could end up paying $5 million in additional costs. So Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed a lawsuit to halt the “dilatory and frivolous” recount:

Michigan voters rejected Stein’s candidacy by massive margins but her refusal to accept that state-verified result poses an expensive and risky threat to hard-working taxpayers and abuses the intent of Michigan law. We have asked the court to end the recount which Stein is pursuing in violation of Michigan laws that protect the integrity of our elections. It is inexcusable for Stein to put Michigan voters at risk of paying millions and potentially losing their voice in the Electoral College in the process.

Meanwhile, the Green Party has withdrawn its lawsuit for a statewide recount in Pennsylvania. Although Stein has raised over $7 million, they claim the petitioners “cannot afford to post the $1,000,000 bond required by the Court.”

In a tweet, Stein asks, “How odd is it that we must jump through bureaucratic hoops and raise millions of dollars so we can trust our election results?”

What’s really odd is that the candidate who received less than 1% of the vote is pushing for a recount in Pennsylvania rather than the candidate of the 1%, Hillary Clinton.

Facing long odds in Pennsylvania, the nutcase is taking her case to federal court. If the case winds its way through the federal court system and makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court, President Trump’s pick will be there waiting for Dr. Jill Stein.

Election Day 2010

I am leaving in a bit for DC, where I will report from the National Command Center of the Election Protection Coalition. I will post updates to Facebook and Twitter.

Before you go vote, know your rights, and the location of your polling place and polling hours. If you encounter a problem, ask a poll worker for help.

If you see any irregularities or need assistance, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683).

The FBI has set up a toll-free number — 1-800-253-3931 — for complaints about ballot access.

To help tell our story, please share your voting experience via email or send a tweet to #866OURVOTE.

Remember, be careful how you vote.

Meet Al Green

Later today, the executive committee of the South Carolina Democratic Party will consider the protest filed by Vic Rawl, who lost to Alvin Greene in the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate.

Rawl claims reports of “extremely unusual incidents” place “a cloud over Tuesday’s election.”

The State Election Commission says baloney:

… [W]e want voters to know that we are confident in the integrity of our state’s voting system and that security of South Carolina’s voting process has always been - and will always be - a primary focus of the State Election Commission. Our state has a proud history of safe, secure and accurate elections and South Carolinians can be assured and confident in the system’s ability to perform in the Runoff as it has thousands of times before - accurately and reliably.

Circa 2003, I was among the first to sound the alarm about the perils of paperless voting machines. But I think allegations of widespread voting irregularities are unfounded.

The problem in South Carolina was not computer glitches. It was human error.

Still, I agree with my colleagues at the Verified Voting Foundation that South Carolina’s embarrassment is a teachable moment:

Whether specific reports of irregularities in this election are confirmed, the most important fact about South Carolina’s voting system is that most ballots cannot be effectively audited or recounted. Serious concerns about the integrity of the primary (and of other elections conducted using the same technology) are inevitable, and legitimate (italics in original).

[…]

Whatever the outcome, we strongly urge citizens and policymakers in the state and in the nation at large to use this moment to insist on their right to voting systems that demonstrate trustworthiness rather than demand trust. Congressman Rush Holt’s and Senator Bill Nelson’s Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act would require that all Federal elections employ a system of paper ballots marked by the voter, with random hand-counted audits to check electronic tallies of the ballots. There has never been a better time for Congress to pass this critically needed legislation. The voters and the public deserve no less.

Meanwhile, meet the Al Green who has my vote.

Happy New Year

Thank God this zero of a decade is over. The lowlights included the Florida election debacle, 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Hurricane Katrina and the entire George W. Bush error.

I want to get the new decade off to a better start so I’m skipping the black-eye peas. Instead, I’m kicking off 2010 with some “Memphis Soul Stew.”

Have a safe and happy new year.

Electoral College Daze

Five days and counting. But some voters aren’t waiting. They’re turning out in droves.

Barack Obama has a 19-point lead among early voters, but polls show the race is too close to call. In Florida, for instance, Obama has a two-point lead over John McCain.

Will history repeat itself? There’s already chaos at the polls, lawsuits are flying, and both parties have lawyered up. What if Obama wins the popular vote but loses the Electoral College vote?

CNN’s William Schneider recently asked:

Why isn’t there more rage over the Electoral College because it violates democratic norms?

Schneider added:

There was so much rage over Florida, people didn’t think about the Electoral College. But if it happens again, twice within 10 years, it would be intolerable to Americans.

For African Americans, it would be more than intolerable. The New York Times reports:

Wounds have not healed here in Duval County since the mangled presidential election of 2000, when more than 26,000 ballots were discarded as invalid for being improperly punched. Nearly 40 percent of the votes were thrown out in the predominantly Democratic-leaning African-American communities around Jacksonville, a reality that has caused suspicions of racial bias to linger, even though intentional disenfranchisement was never proved.

Now, in a show of early election enthusiasm, more than 84,200 people have already voted in Duval County, surpassing the number of early votes cast in the last presidential election. Added to 33,800 absentee ballots collected so far, the numbers show that 22 percent of registered voters cast their ballots as of Oct. 27, county election officials said.

But amid excitement over Mr. Obama’s historic candidacy and the chance that the country might choose an African-American president within a matter of days, there is an unmistakable sense of anxiety among blacks here that something will go wrong, that victory will slip away.

DIY Voter Protection 2.0

Election Day is seven days away, but the specter of another “Florida” looms. There are unreliable voting machines, inaccurate voter databases, rejected military ballots, confusing ballot design and unlawful voter purges.

Florida is in the running to be the next “Florida,” along with Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

And Ohio. President Bush has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the status of 200,000 newly registered voters whose names were flagged as mismatches in a state database. If challenged at the polls, they will be given a provisional ballot.

In the 2006 election, as many as 20 percent of provisional ballots were not counted in some states.

Americans should be outraged that $3 billion later, states still are not ready. The 2002 Help America Vote Act was intended to help voters and restore confidence in the electoral process. Instead, vendors have helped themselves to taxpayers’ money.

Clearly, electoral reform must be on the policy agenda for the new Congress. But first we have to get through next Tuesday.

Already, the phones are ringing off the hook at the voter assistance hotlines. As reports of voting irregularities continue to come in, folks are getting jittery.

But some are twittering to protect the vote.

Beka Economopoulos, one of the organizers of the Twitter Voter Report, wrote:

Volunteers across the country are moving quickly to build a decentralized election monitoring system that will allow voters to use text messages to report incidents of voter suppression, long lines, broken machines, and other disruptions on Election Day. The Twitter Vote Report site will aggregate the reporting data, represent it in real-time on a dynamic web map, and notify voters, election monitoring groups, and the media, facilitating rapid response by poll workers and activists.

I asked Volunteer Coordinator Matt Cooperrider how folks can get involved:

If they just come to the page, they can help. There are lots of aspects. So no matter their experience, they can get involved. No technical knowledge is required.

For more info, go here.

Vote First

Election Day is still 29 days away, but millions of Americans will vote before the polls open on Nov. 4.

In Georgia, for instance, more than 135,000 folks have already voted early in-person or by absentee ballot. Given the high level of enthusiasm for Barack Obama, it is not surprising that nearly 40 percent of early voters are African American.

The fact is, voting while black on Election Day too often means waiting in long lines or encountering unexpected challenges at the polls.

Indeed, everything is not peachy keen in the Peachtree State. Voters are being dropped from the voting rolls and election officials won’t tell who or how many until after the election. If the last purge in Georgia is any guide, thousands of voters may go to vote and find their names are not on the rolls.

And in the Palmetto State, the notoriously unreliable electronic voting machines are proven once again to be, well, unreliable.

So even though you may have been voting forever, get ready. Melanie Campbell, CEO and executive director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, says:

The number one problem people experience at the polls is that their registration status is questioned.

Melanie is a co-convener of the Unity ’08 Black Campaign, a nonpartisan civic engagement initiative designed to protect the vote and mobilize black voters nationwide.

Unity ’08 strongly recommends that before Election Day:

• Verify your registration status by contacting your local board of elections.
• Verify the location of your polling place by calling 1-866-MYVOTE1 (1-866-698-6831).

With the record voter registration numbers, why wait. Be a part of history and vote first. In many states, you can vote early in person right now. You may also be able to request an absentee ballot.

By voting early, you will be free to help get voters to the polls on Election Day. For info on how you can get involved with Unity ’08, please go here.