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Tentative Workshop Descriptions
PARALLEL ELECTIONS WORKSHOP
Experts agree when it comes to voting, 17th century technology is the most accurate, most secure, and least expensive. Learn how hand-counting paper ballots in a Parallel
Election:
- engages citizens in this cornerstone of democracy Ð voting
- audits official election results
- serves as an exit poll
Learn the tools to effectively run and analyze a Parallel Election in your precinct. Show the experts, your neighbors, and yourself that sometimes the simplest method is the best.
Rady Ananda and Marj Creech have been deeply involved in election integrity since 11/2/04. They have run parallel elections in Ohio, collected and analyzed election records, organized rallies and events, and have written numerous position papers, flyers, press releases, songs and plays -- all related to our election system.
ADOPT A BOARD OF ELECTIONS WORKSHOP
Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE) established the Adopt a Board of Elections (ABE) project in April 2006. The purpose of the ABE program is to assign an activist/volunteer to be the contact person for each of the 88 County BOE's in Ohio. This will allow CASE and other organizations to gather information from and effectively lobby BOE's.
Make sure your county BOE:
- Contact BOE personnel in order to establish positive communication and a productive personal relationship.
- Request specific procedural documents in writing or verbally.
- Compare your adopted county security procedures with other counties.
- Participate as a poll monitor in a precinct in your county if possible and work with other poll monitors in your county.
- Monitor the rules for accepting/rejecting paper ballots (provisional, absentee).
- Make every effort to capture precinct level election results, before the results are consolidated via central tabulator.
- Keep BOE's informed as to current news events regarding electronic security.
We also hope (as part of Ohio Vigilance's Project Post) to collect results from the posted results and compare them to the official results. The workshop will outline our successes (experiences) to date, our goals for the future (beyond 2006), and of answer questions from perspective BOE "Adopters."
Pete Johnson has been a member of Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE) since Jan 2005. He is also a member of J30 Coalition, Common Cause, Election Defense Alliance (ESA) and Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA).
CITIZEN-LED POST-ELECTION AUDITS & RECOUNTS
Just because the voting is over doesn't mean that the votes have been
counted accurately. Join citizen activists in a lively discussion of what
we can do in the weeks following the election to look for suspected fraud
and to ensure an honest election. What are we looking for? How do we do a
public records request and what happens when we are ignored? What records
are we after and how do we record them for later analysis? What kinds of
discrepancies have we discovered in 04 and 05 election records? How do we
go about proving fraud if we find evidence of it? How can you, an ordinary
citizen, help in the analysis of 06 ballots and other election records?
Bob Fitrakis has a Ph.D. in Political Science and a J.D. He teaches political science at Columbus State Community College and is one of the attorneys responsible for the Moss v Bush lawsuit to challenge the 2004 election results. He is an investigative journalist and co-author of several books including "How the GOP Stole America's 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008." He brings his expertise is analyzing and publicizing election records that he and other activists have carefully gathered for the past two years.
Stuart Wright organized a committee to observe a hand count of Franklin
County votes FOR and AGAINST statewide issue 2 (absentee voting for any
registered voter) on optical-scan absentee ballots and punch-card
provisional ballots from the November 2005 election. He has also helped
photograph ballots and signature books in Butler, Clermont, Cuyahoga, and
Lucas counties, and recently became a board member of the League of Women
Voters of Metropolitan Columbus.
Adele Eisner is a Cleveland activist who has been studying the
investigations into the failures of the Cuyahoga election system. She is
also well informed on electronic voting machine vulnerabilities.
VOTING 101
Are you new to voting in this country or just want an update on how to vote on the new machines? Confused by the new Identification laws? Wondering if your vote will count and how to make sure it does? Then this is your workshop! We will answer your questions, such as, How do I vote early or absentee, What if I have to vote provisional, Where do I vote? How does the voting machine work? And even, what issues are important to me? How do I decide what or who to vote for? Who has objective information?
Connie Harris is a local organizer and voting rights activist with Ohio Honest Elections. She is at the center of what's going on in the Ohio election integrity movement and is often seen at the center of rallies, creative events, and protests for integrity and accountability from politicians. In the spring of this year she was honored at the Free Press Awards ceremony.
RIGHTS OF VOTERS WITH DISABILITIES
One in every five American has a disability, and the rights of these voters may be denied in a variety of ways. For example, poll workers falsely assume voters with disabilities are incompetent to vote; poll workers deny voters with disabilities the assistance they require and are entitled to in the voting booth; voting place and equipment are not accessible; poll workers deny voters with disabilities curbside voting services; voters with disabilities in facilities such as nursing homes are denied ballots and delivery. Learn about the laws that protect the rights of voters with disabilities and how to ensure that these rights are preserved.
Mike Kirkman is an attorney with the Ohio Legal Rights Services. The Ohio Legal Rights Service (OLRS) is the federally and state designated Protection and Advocacy system for people with disabilities. OLRS was created to protect the rights of Ohioans with disabilities, and that includes protecting the fundamental right to vote.
ELECTION DAY PROTECTION - POLL MONITORS
Election Protection is designed to help every eligible voter cast a ballot. Election Protection 365, or EP 365 is a year-round comprehensive program that educates, empowers and protects voters. One central reason for the existence of Election Protection is the threat of voter intimidation and voter suppression. "Jim Crow is being reincarnated as an entrenched bureaucrat or politician raising barriers to the ballot box, and it is becoming much harder for many Americans to exercise their right to vote. The barriers range from obvious to insidious to unintentional, and they are proliferating across the nation.," said PFAW Foundation President Ralph G. Neas. This workshop will educate and train citizen volunteers around new laws and regulations that burden the right to vote, as well as give them the tools to intervene in voter suppression by helping voters on election day with on the spot information and assistance.
Shaun Tucker is a native Ohioan and the Ohio State Coordinator for People for the American Way Foundation (PFAWF).
ELECTION DAY PROTECTION - LEGAL
This workshop has the same goals as above, and is geared towards attorneys, law students, paralegals, or anyone with a keen interest in the law who is interested in working at the polls or with the field volunteers. This workshop will educate, update and train legal volunteers in laws and regulations that suppress the right of every Ohioan to vote. Recommendations on effective strategies for intervention on election day will be shared. This workshop will review various methods such as ways to preserve access to the polls, awareness and prevention of voter intimidation, how to spot issues with new voting machines and ballot forms, and tips on appropriate legal intervention when necessary.
Michele Lawrence Jawando is the National Coordinator of Election Protection & Legal Outreach , at People for the American Way Foundation.
RUNNING A CAMPUS EFFORT
Students are a vulnerable category of voters. Campus voters -- young, mobile, and often first-time voters -- present their own set of challenges and needs. In this workshop, BOE officials will learn what they can do to educate and empower these young voters and how to address the pre-election and election day issues that may arise on campus precincts. This workshop will also cover other ways Board of Elections officials can work together to ensure that every campus vote is cast and counted.
Susan Gwinn, atty. and member, Athens County Board of Elections; Adjunct Professor, Political Science, Ohio University.
NUTS AND BOLTS FOR BOARDS OF ELECTIONS
For BOE Officials/County Party Officials
Ohio has experienced a re-energized interest in voting, in general, and in the Boards of Elections, in particular. In this workshop, BOE officials and county party officials will learn how to work with this citizen enthusiasm to help their BOE and their party do a better job in assisting voters, protecting their right to vote, and ensuring that every vote is counted on election day. This workshop will also cover ways that BOES can assist in voter education and in facilitating the right to vote to ensure a confusion and frustration-free election and post-election experience.
Susan Gwinn, atty. and member, Athens County Board of Elections; Adjunct Professor, Political Science, Ohio University.
Event sponsors include: The Columbus State Community College Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism/Free Press, Ohio Honest Elections, Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections, the League of Young Voters, the People for the American Way Foundation, Democratic Socialists of Central Ohio, J30, Citizens Grassroots Congress, and Cultural Creatives.
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