Working Groups
PARTICIPATE * COLLABORATE * CONTRIBUTE
We welcome your contributions of ideas and resources. Our website is built so that anyone who registers for an EDA website account may upload content to the webpages. (See "Add Content to Public Pages" [1] link located in the leftside column of any page). We invite you to do even more.
By joining a Working Group you will have read and write access to the Working Group forums where you can participate in all phases of political campaign work with other citizen activists from around the country. You will also have a voting voice in deciding EDA policies. (Please see our Statement of Governance under "About Us").
To join an EDA Working Group, please click here [3].
Registration and Voting Systems
Description: Our locally-based affiliates will pursue a program of working with local elected officials and elections administrators concerning the dangers of electronic voting systems as well as the centralized voter registration databases, which increasingly are being outsourced to the same vendors that supply the voting systems.
EDA will collect and distribute information to the network of affiliate organizations concerning best practices for securing voting systems (such as precinct-based counting and tabulation, and more rigorous manual auditing procedures) and better alternatives to electronic systems.
Similar information will be distributed concerning risks and safeguards for centralized voter registration databases. Materials will also be developed about non-electronic mechanisms that are HAVA compliant. Local groups will be better equipped to mobilize their constituencies to work with officials to reject vulnerable voting systems and institute secure and confirmable voting methods. They will play an active role to ensure that, to the extent electronic equipment is used, it legally complies with certification standards and meets meaningful security standards.
Acting Coordinator: Bob Wilson [4], IL
Members:
Chandra Friese CA
Mary Howe Kiraly MD
Tom Manaugh TX
Ellen Stone WA
Peg Luther TX
Wallace Knight MD
Scott Stutzman CA
Page Day WA
Jim Soper CA
Phyllis Huster WA
Mary Lawrence FL
Linda Finkle NY
GO TO THE FORUM [5]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [6])
Election Monitoring
Description: Until we have secure and verifiable voting systems under public rather than private control, it will be necessary for citizens to closely monitor all phases of the voting process and to conduct independent checks of official election results. EDA will spur the development of a network for organizing and training volunteers at the precinct level to monitor and record all phases of voter registration, elections and recounts, before, during and after, covering every form of voting on every voting and counting occasion.
The voting monitors will be trained how and when to file public records requests for every relevant item of election data. Other volunteers will be trained to conduct "parallel elections" in which voters voluntarily cast unofficial paper ballots that duplicate their official ballots cast on electronic voting systems. The paper ballots afford a basis for statistical comparison with the official vote count, and may provide indication of suspicious official vote results warranting further investigation, including recounts.
Additionally, to the extent funds become available for special projects, EDA will contract for independent, professional exit polls of selected target precincts and contests around the country, and will arrange for wide and timely publication of the exit poll data in comparison to officially announced voting results.
Coordinator: CA
Members:
Judy Alter CA
Albert Zepeda TX
Chuck Garner CA
Chandra Friese CA
Lewis Miller NJ
Ron Watt CA
Sharon Muln MA
Mary Howe Kiraly MD
Suzanne Warden CA
Ellen Brodsky FL
Max Prejean PA
Michelle Gabriel CA
Francene Blanchard CA
Terry Paddack
John Belmonte NY
GO TO THE FORUM [7]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [8])
Investigations
Description: County-level election integrity organizations will train citizen volunteers to conduct election research drawing on methods such as those modeled by Blackboxvoting.org. Methods will include filing public records requests with county and state elections departments seeking raw voting data; procedures for the conduct of elections; voting systems manuals, procedures, and technical specifications; and transactions and communications between local elections departments, voting systems vendors, and secretaries of state or other chief state elections officials.
Election data down to the precinct level will be sought, including voter registration rolls, voter rosters (poll books), precinct poll tapes, ballot image files, tabulator backup data files, disaggregated, real-time precinct voting data transmissions, absentee ballots and reports, spoiled ballots and reports, provisional ballots and reports, memory card inventories, modem traffic logs, ballot chain of custody documentation, and whatever else is determined to be necessary for a complete accounting of all voting activity.
Technical experts, whether volunteers or hired consultants, will examine voting systems information collected pursuant to public records requests and/or evidence obtained through legal discovery, searching for evidence indicating machine error, clerical error, and other election irregularities, including evidence of vote-altering software and firmware operations. These hardware and software technical specialists will devise election auditing methodologies; recruit other expert consultants; train other volunteers in information-gathering; conduct forensic examinations of electronic voting equipment, computer hard drives, machine logs, modem traffic logs, software code, etc.; publish findings for peer review; and prepare evidence for litigation efforts.
Other volunteer researchers will pursue leads on all other types of information pertaining to electronic and non-electronic voting machines, supplies, vendors and their subcontractors, including business and political relationships linking elections officials, voting system vendors, representatives of polling firms and news media. Investigations will cover corporate ownership, loans and payments, business or data-sharing agreements, lobbying of local elections officials or state or federal legislators, and any other relationships or dealings influencing the conduct and reporting of elections.
Election data, technical evidence, and analysis methods developed by this coalition will be shared and coordinated with the National Election Data Archive and other projects working to systematize election data reporting and analyze patterns in past elections for evidence of error or fraud in the tabulation of election results.
Co-Coordinators:
John Brakey [9] AZ
David Griscom [10] AZ
Members:
Chandra Friese CA
Mary Howe Kiraly MD
Tom Manaugh TX
Ellen Stone WA
Peg Luther TX
Wallace Knight MD
Scott Stutzman CA
Page Day WA
Jim Soper CA
Phyllis Huster WA
Jim March CA
GO TO THE FORUM [11]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [12])
Election Data Analysis
Description: Provides baseline US election data collection; rapid analytic methodology; exit polling; election fraud detection, real time and historical pattern analysis. The exit poll and official election data will be instantly rapidly analyzed by a national election database that will also be a sponsored project or partner organization of this national electoral integrity coalition. The election data project will develop data conversion tools and procedures to standardize election data collected from all electoral jurisdictions in the nation so that normative election data histories and baselines will be prepared in advance of elections. The data project will develop methodologies for immediate comparative analysis of exit poll, election result, and historical voting data, capable of identifying, on Election Day, anomalous data patterns indicating the possible presence of voting fraud. Such instances will be flagged for immediate, intensive analysis. Candidates in affected races will be advised against early concessions, pending further investigation, and preparations for hand recounts will be commenced, drawing on recount funds and trained precinct volunteers.
Coordinator: Dale Tavris [13] MD
Members:
Jerry Lobdill TX
Tom Manaugh TX
Sally Castleman MA
Eugenia Sherman FL
Jonathan Simon MA
Jeremy Lewis NY
Sharon Mullen MA
Mary Edwards CA
Cary Nation FL
Dave Kraig NM
Harold Lecar CA
Joanna Herlihy MA
Josh Mitteldorf PA
Vic Bobnick NY
Additional others who helped in the 2006 Election Data Project are encouraged to join the Working Group
GO TO THE FORUM [14]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [15])
Election Day Rapid Response: A Six-Part Plan to Defend the Vote
Election Day Rapid Response Working Group
The EDRR Working Group is a "supracommittee" composed of the Coordinators of the Election Monitoring, Data Analysis, Communications, and Event Productions Working Groups, plus other subject specialists, who select electoral contests to monitor, devise methods, and coordinate deployment of EDRR field teams, collection of data, team communication, and publicity of findings in response to any election violations or indication of error or fraud detected in reported election results. This Committee is operational during biennial national elections (presidential and Congressional midterm) or for any other election of high strategic importance or that affords significant opportunity to test and apply EDDR tactics.
Election Defense Alliance has a coordinated, six-part plan for citizen direct action that may be applied to defending the vote in any election. The tactical components of the EDRR plan are:
1. Election Monitoring. Teams of trained citizen observors will monitor polls and central counting centers to document and report violations of election law, including illegal obstruction of the public's right to observe the count, failure to publicly post precinct results, and violations of election security provisions. Monitor volunteers, contact Tom Courbat [16]
Major Election Monitoring operations will be conducted in Riverside County CA [17], the 11th CD in CA,
in Miami-Dade and Pinellas counties, Florida [18], and in the 6th CD in IL [19]. Click the hyperlinks for organizer contacts in those areas. Send announcements of other monitoring operations to Info@ElectionDefenseAlliance.org [20]
Want to organize an election day demonstration in your own county? Go to the county-level forums at BlueRevolution.us [21] to announce and organize an election day demonstration where you live and vote. All elections are local!
2. Pre-Emptive Legal Intervention. Election monitoring teams will be accompanied by lawyers with pre-prepared court orders to enforce compliance with election laws, including public right to observe the count, public posting of precinct results, and strict adherence to election security protocols which if breached, render the voting machines out of compliance and the election results suspect and unverifiable. Legal volunteers, contact Dan Ashby [22]
3. Exit Polling.Citizen-commissioned exit polls can provide an independent check on the validity of reported election results. The most competitive House, Senate, and statewide contests are where the threat of covert election fraud is predictably the greatest. The cost of covering the most crucial races that will determine the composition of Congress, is about $400,000--a substantial but achievable sum considering the stakes. Please go to the Independent Exit Poll donation page [23] and send your contribution immediately. Arrangements must be made within days.
4. Election Data Analysis. EDA will manage an election-day data analysis operation that compares historical voting data, voter opinion tracking polls, and citizen-commissioned exit polling data, to the officially reported election results from selected, highly competitive House, Senate, and statewide races. The official election results will be processed through a battery of multiple analytic computer programs for rapid, real-time flagging of suspect patterns suggesting fraudulent manipulation of the official vote totals. Findings will be communicated via conventional press releases as well as the EDRR communications network of websites, Internet radio, and community access television networks. Data Analysis volunteers: Contact Dale Tavris [24]
5. Communications. Throughout election day and night, activity at polls and election counting centers will be thoroughly documented by teams of correspondents recording and uploading live video, audio, photo, and text reports via wireless communication devices (e.g., video-enabled cellphones) to EDA and other E I web portals, bypassing the corporate newsmedia to bring breaking news of voter suppression, obstruction, security breaches, and indications of electronic vote theft direct to the public, while it is happening. To participate in shaping net-mediated communication tactics, contact Dan Ashby [25].
Conventional press release and publicity methods will complement Net distribution. We need experienced publicists and newswriters. To help with print and radio promotion, contact Info[at]ElectionDefenseAlliance[dot]org [26]
6. Demonstrations. Public demonstrations will be organized at central counting locations, commencing at the close of polls and continuing throughout election night and beyond, demanding verified proof of reported election results. The demonstrations will be covered live via web portals and public radio and TV networks, interspersed with updates from the Election Data Analysis project reporting suspect election totals and directing increased protest turnout to those locations.
If you have experience organizing public demonstrations, or contacts with groups who do, please send message to Info[at]ElectionDefenseAlliance[dot]org [27]
The above tactics in isolation are limited or useless, but in combination, they are powerful. Many other local, regional and national groups have independently developed similar or complementary plans to those listed above. These efforts will have greatest effect if they are coordinated and focused to direct mass public attention to election obstruction and electronic fraud as it is happening.
The more volunteers and donated funds we have, the greater our chance of arresting electronic fraud and voter suppression.
We need: Organizers, publicists, fundraisers, programmers, webmasters, video and radio correspondents, writers and graphic artists, event managers, MONEY, [28] and hundreds of citizen patriots to volunteer for election day monitoring, communications, and demonstrations.
Send inquiries and offers of assistance to Info[at]ElectionDefenseAlliance[dot]org [29] and check the "Take Action" and "Projects" links and the EDRR Working Group forum on this website for forthcoming directions and updates.
Legal
Description: County-level organizations will pursue legal actions to enforce compliance with state election laws currently being violated by county elections departments. Violations include abridgement of the public's right to observe all phases of the voting process, to inspect voting systems, to have votes reported at the precinct level, to have recount laws uniformly applied, and to have access to recounts without the assessment of prohibitively high fees.
Our legal team will appeal to county district attorneys and grand juries, and state attorneys general to uphold state election laws being breached; but, in the event government law enforcement fails to enforce the election laws, the Alliance will engage our own attorneys to file class action suits against county and state elections departments and voting vendors who are noncompliant with state election laws.
Additionally, we will file injunctions to block the purchase, deployment, or use of voting systems that are not legally qualified according to state voting system standards, or that otherwise fail to comply with state election regulations or laws, including state bond acts for funding purchase of voting equipment.
We will also file suit to enjoin the use of any voting system that contains known security risks, or that otherwise constitutes a threat to electoral integrity or a waste of public funds. Where "sunshine" or "public right to know" or other relevant clauses in state constitutions present opportunity, we will sue to reverse the privatization of public elections by prohibiting proprietary source code in any voting system, and require that, if any voting software is used at all, it must be publicly developed and managed as a truly open-source software application.
Acting Coordinator: Andi Novick [31]
Members:
Gail Jonas CA
Tom Manaugh TX
Mark E. Smith CA
Dan Ashby CA
GO TO THE FORUM [32]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [33])
Legislation
Description: Our local affiliate groups will work to enact legislation at the state and local levels to support voting systems that are honest, transparent, secure, verifiable, and worthy of the public trust. We will work to ban DRE voting machines and privatized, nondisclosed source code in the operation of any voting system, and we will work towards the institution of meaningful vote auditing and recount procedures effective in detecting and remediating electoral fraud.
To defend existing electronic voting systems against known vulnerabilities to fraud, we will advocate passage of legislation to institute mandatory, rigorous hand-count election auditing and verification procedures inclusive of all ballots cast, according to protocols adequate to assure detection of fraud with a high degree of precision and low margin of error across a full range of voting environments.
We will also pursue legislative implementation of secure computing practices on par with national defense requirements, including strict bans on interpreter code, prohibition of any modem or wireless communications connections to any voting system component, and the requirement that any data storage or memory media used to access voting records be read-only.
Our ultimate legislative goal, whenever and wherever possible, will be to establish precinct-based hand-counting of paper ballots as the mandatory standard for secure and verifiable elections. Recognizing that the transition from present voting systems to an all hand-counted paper ballot system may require phased implementation, we will be prepared to advocate as an interim solution precinct-based, publicly owned and operated optical scan systems running publicy reviewed and approved software, and a split-ballot counting protocol in which contests for federal and statewide elective office are hand-counted, with all other contests and issues counted by scanner.
We further will seek state constitutional amendments that declare every citizen's right to have their vote counted as cast; that include a voter's bill of rights enumerating the conditions necessary for free, fair, transparent and verifiable elections; and that promote full access and participation in the voting process.
Coordinator: Nancy Tobi [34] NH
Members:
Tom Courbat CA
Sherry Healy CA
Brent Turner CA
Carol Waser DC
Roy Lipscomb IL
Sally Castleman MA
Phil Lindsey MO
Stuart Hutchison NJ
Diana Finch NY
John Burik OH
Chris Lee PA
Tom Manaugh TX
Kathy Dopp UT
Ellen Stone WA
Bev Harris WA
Paul Lehto WA
GO TO THE FORUM [35]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [36])
Communications
Description: The Communications Working Group is responsible for researching the best quality information on all aspects of EDA’s election integrity campaign, and adapting and conveying this information in various communications media for a variety of audiences and purposes, including (for example) introductory fact sheets on electronic voting for the general public, training materials for election integrity activists, press releases, event promotion, informational radio spots and web videos, print and internet advertising, briefings for elections officials and legislators, and technical presentations in support of legal initiatives.
The Communications Working Group will be a service resource to all other EDA Working Groups, and will work closely with Media and Publicity and Public Education on projects where the functions of all three groups intersect.
Each member of the Communications Group will participate in one or more specialty groups concentrating on different phases of message development and different media forms. These include National Website, National E-mail Network, Research, Writing, Graphics, and Audio-Visual. See detailed descriptions of each further below.
Acting Coordinator: Dan Ashby [37] CA
Members:
Phill Harrison WA
Robert Lockwood Mills CT
Dale Axelrod CA
Richard Bozian OH
Joe Davis RI
Bev Donley TX
Betsy Farquhar OH
Mike Hicks OR
Ofer Inbar MA
Dennis Karius NY
Joan Kowal MI
Eileen Wilkinson NY
Ginny Ross OR
Mary Howe Kiraly MD
Roy Lipscomb IL
Alan Frankel MA
- National Website:
The development of a shared, national election integrity website was approved October 3, 2005 by 38 participants in a national strategy session of the Portland Summit. A full-featured website for this national electoral integrity coalition is now live and under continuing development at http://www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org [38]. The website will serve as a library and collaborative research, communications, and promotional tool for the movement.We will develop an extensive, well-indexed and fully-retrievable library of news articles, research papers, and activity reports from regional Alliance affiliates, plus graphic, audio, and visual documents and instructional materials contributed by, and shared with, individuals and organizations across the nation. The website will be coordinated with a national e-mail network (described below). The website will host an articles archive and subscription management system for a national newsletter, and every newsletter and e-mail alert transmitted over the e-mail network will carry links referencing the website.
In addition to the publicly accessible features described above, the national website will also host a separate area that is private and secure, where expert elections investigators can share their findings and work collaboratively to develop methods for analyzing, detecting, and proving electronic vote fraud, and for deploying effective defenses against it.
- National E-mail Network:
We propose linking existing e-mail lists of election integrity groups across the nation into a voluntary shared network for transmission of national e-mail alerts, announcements, and newsletters that will serve to coordinate efforts of regional groups on a nationally effective scale. An initial phase of voluntary cooperation among managers of separate lists would achieve rapid large-scale distribution capacity. A systematic subscription-building phase to follow would result in an opt-in mail list belonging wholly to the national coalition. A detailed proposal explaining the mail-list plan available here [39]. - Research:
Responsible for monitoring the newsmedia, websites, and research institutes to collect, evaluate, and classify information on all aspects of the Alliance's election integrity campaign and to elaborate these findings with original research. Researchers will recommend content for adaptation into other media formats for most effective presentation, and will obtain permissions when necessary to copy, reuse, or link to material produced by other content providers. The research and website subcommittees will collaborate in designing and maintaining a website library archiving all the informational resources of the Alliance. - Writing:
In collaboration with the research subcommittee, writes fact sheets, articles, reports, manuals, scripts, and publicity materials, and provides writing and editing services to as requested to assist with all other projects and purposes of the Alliance. - Graphics:
Design and production of graphic information displays for print, web, photo, video, and banner presentations. - Audio/Visual:
Prepares film, video, and sound recordings and adapts content from other media for film, video, graphic animation, and radio presentations.
GO TO THE FORUM [40]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [41])
Media and Publicity
Description: Drawing on research and writing support from the Communications Working Group, Media and Publicity will cultivate extensive contacts in conventional and alternative media and be prepared to issue well-crafted press releases in quick response to news placement opportunities, consistently and frequently. An initial high priority will be the engagement of a professional newswire service to augment our message placement capacity and quickly raise the profile of the EDA as a coordinating body for nationwide electoral integrity activism at the county level.
Reaching the large proportion of the population that derives most of its information from corporate news media presents a particular challenge, since corporate media have behaved as though complicit in electoral corruption with motive to maintain a coverup. The Alliance media effort must therefore become adept at maneuvering conventional corporate media despite its resistance to our message, while expertly applying popular communications media that are still relatively free of corporate control, to deliver unfiltered information directly to the public.
The Media and Publicity Working Group will develop expertise and effective innovations in the use of websites, weblogs, e-mail newsletters, instant messaging, alternative print publications and independent film, video, and radio to reach the expanding proportion of the population that derives most of its news from these sources and on the whole is more receptive to the electoral integrity message.
Rather than reacting only in response to events outside our control, Media and Publicity will collaborate with Events Production in arranging provocative public demonstrations to drive and frame constructive mass media coverage of electoral integrity issues. Media and Publicity will also organize and promote an Election Defense Alliance Speakers Bureau of articulate organizers, investigators, and authors who will reach the public via live appearances and radio interviews.
In special circumstance and as financial resources permit, the judicious use of paid advertising may be part of Alliance publicity strategy; but in general our emphasis will be on low-cost, direct-access forms of noncorporate mass communications to project our message directly, and so oblige corporate media to respond to the informational demand we develop.
Coordinator:
Members:
Dave Larson IL
Mary Howe Kiral MD
Victoria Hayen MN
Dorrie Steinhoff OH
Dan Ashby CA
John Burik OH
Linda Silva PA
GO TO THE FORUM [42]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [43])
Public Education
Description:
Restoring transparency and public accountability to our election systems of necessity begins with informing citizens about the unacceptable risks of secret, privatized voting systems, and motivating them to demand transparency and public accountability from local elections officials.
To these ends, the Public Education Working Group will utilize all available means of educational communication, including factsheets, flyers, and posters distributed at public events; articles, editorials, and letters published in local, regional, and national print and web publications; as well as visual and audio presentations conveyed by broadcast and distributable media (CDs, DVDs).
The Public Education Group will produce instructional materials for use by EDA, and will be available as a service bureau to help other regional groups develop educational materials and present them effectively.
Public Education members will collaborate extensively with other Working Groups such as Communications and Public Events, drawing on their expertise in research, production, and presentation--but their own special strengths will be knowledge of effective instructional approaches and their enthusiasm for teaching.
Public Education will also have an important role to play in collaboration with the Media and Publicity Group in preparing print and broadcast information campaigns to reach mass audiences via public service announcements and paid advertising.
Coordinator: Marj Creech [44] OH
Members:
Dennis Karius NY
Richard Bozian OH
Bev Donley TX
Marinel Fuller CA
Victoria Haven MN
Carol Waser DC
Mark E. Smith CA
Patricia McCoy WA
Norma Harrison CA
Debra Porta OR
Pamela Smith MO
Mary Lawrence FL
GO TO THE FORUM [45]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [46])
Events Production
Description: The Events Production Working Group will manage all aspects of EDA public events productions, developing the contacts, procedures and skills to manage everything from planning, permits, and publicity through the practical, physical arrangements for managing large assemblies of people in directed, coordinated action.
Events Production will take the lead management role while coordinating with other EDA Working Groups that have directly related functions, such as Media and Publicity.
- Events Subcommittees
- Audience Events
- Demonstration Events
The Events Production Working Group has two specialized sub-groups: Audience Events, and Demonstration Events.
Audience events, generally presented in an audience venue setting, include public programs such as talks by featured speakers, panel discussions, video or film showings, and conferences.
Demonstration events, generally presented in outdoor settings or in governmental meeting chambers, include press conferences, public testimony at government hearings, demonstrations, vigils, marches, and rallies.
On Election Day, a special category of public demonstrations will be convened at county central counting locations, commencing at the close of polls and continuing throughout election night and beyond, demanding verified proof of reported election results. The demonstrations will be covered live via web portals and public radio and TV networks, interspersed with updates from the Election Data Analysis project reporting suspect election totals and directing increased protest turnout to those locations. (See more under EDRR, "Election Day Rapid Response" [47]).
Coordinator:
Members:
Dale Axelrod CA
Jeremy Lewis NY
Victoria Hayen MN
Dorrie Steinhoff OH
GO TO THE FORUM [48]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [49])
Fundraising
Description: Initially, we plan to fund Election Defense Alliance primarily from individual direct donations, solicited through e-mail appeals linked to a website donation account. As we grow, individual direct donations constituting the core of Alliance funding will be augmented with major donor gifts and foundation grants.
Additionally, the Alliance will generate income from the sale of message-media products serving the dual purpose of building public awareness of the election integrity movement while generating income.
Supervising the above three streams of income-producing activity will be among the job responsibilities of the national coordinator. At such time as growth in resources permits, we may expand national staffing to hire a coordinator dedicated to fundraising, or assign that role to a member of our volunteer board of directors.
In our vision of this national election integrity coalition, the local affiliate organizations that will do most of the elections work at the county level will also do most of their own fundraising and be largely self-supporting. The Fundraising Working Group will facilitate the exchange of best fundraising practices, while EDA as a whole generates a national publicity presence that will increase recognition of local affiliate organizations and enhance their fundraising capacity. As EDA raises revenue in excess of our operating and project budgets, we anticipate channeling surplus funds to support select local initiatives, such as, for example, legal cases with potentially national significance.
Acting Coordinator: Sally Castleman [50]
Members:
Phil Lindsey MO
Jeremy Lewis NY
Dan Ashby CA
GO TO THE FORUM [51]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [52])
Organizational Liaison
Description: At local, regional, and national levels, the Election Defense Alliance will seek to inform, persuade and engage other civic organizations of every variety in the common project of restoring electoral democracy and legitimate, representative government.
The coordinator of the Organizational Liaison work group will pursue alliances with national coordinating bodies of other civic, social, cultural, political, labor, and church groups. Contacts, referrals, resources and methods for organizational coalition-building will be shared and co-developed by the county, state, and national levels of the Election Defense Alliance coalition.
Acting Coordinator: Gail Jonas CA
Members:
Joan Kowal MI
Dan Ashby CA
Dennis Karius NY
Sharianne Greer CA
GO TO THE FORUM [53]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [54])
Working Groups Overview
Election Defense Alliance (EDA) Working Groups are comprised of individuals and representatives of local grassroots groups form around the nation, who work together on specific subject content or campaign tactics, refining knowledge and developing skills and expertise. Strategies and methods developed in the Working Groups can be exported back for use at the regional level, as direct field experience from the local counties comes back to inform the Working Groups. This is a two-way, local-to-national collaborative process to bring about election integrity nationwide. Each Working Group selects its own Coordinator who participates in EDA’s governing body, the Coordinating Council. To join an EDA Working Group: Registration and Voting Systems Election Monitoring Election Data Analysis Investigations Legal Legislation Media and Publicity Communications Public Education Volunteer Recruitment and Training Organizational Liaison Fundraising Events Production To join an EDA Working Group: BACK to the Working Groups Listing Page [59] GO to the Working Groups Forums [60] (requires Working Group registration)Working Groups Overview
First, open an EDA website account [55], then complete this registration survey [56] to join the Working Group that best matches your interests.
This group specializes in learning about the different E-voting vendors and their voting machines and related products, including voter registration database software and service; non-computerized voter assistance technology and hand-counted paper ballot voting systems; and the state and federal election laws and voting system certification standards that are supposed to regulate their use. Correlating what is known about the hacking vulnerabilities of the voting systems, security measures that should be applied, and better alternatives to electronic vote counting, the Registration and Voting Systems Working Group collaborate with regional election integrity groups in advising and influencing election administrators and elected county officials to avoid costly investments in insecure voting systems and institute election methods that afford accuracy and full public accountability.
The Election Monitoring Group studies all aspects of the electoral process with emphasis on opportunities for public observation, then organizes and trains volunteers at the precinct level to monitor and record all phases of voter registration, elections and recounts -- before, during and after -- covering every form of voting on every voting and counting occasion.
The Data Analysis Working Group develops methodologies for collecting, sharing, and analyzing historical election data, opinion polls, exit polls and other relevant metrics, and applies multiple, automated analytic routines to rapidly isolate and examine anomalous patterns that suggest error or fraud in the officially reported election results.
Drawing on methods such as those modeled by Blackboxvoting.org, and by John Brakey of AUDITAZ.org, the Investigations group develops expert familiarity with the hardware, software, and use procedures for electronic voting machines of all vendors, as well as the regulatory standards and procedures that apply to them. The Investigations Working Group also acquires skill in researching business records, contracts, personnel and practices, and political and financial relationships of the voting machine industry.
The Legal Working Group researches all applicable law governing voting machines and elections, and pursues legal actions to enforce compliance with state election laws. The Legal group also trains and deploys legal monitoring teams to respond to election violations as they occur.
In those states where there is potential for passage of electoral reform legislation, the Legislation Working Group works to effect the best election reform possible to prevent or detect electoral fraud -- from total hand-counted paper ballots systems, to banning DRE voting machines and privatized, nondisclosed source code, to instituting reliable manual auditing and recount procedures.
This group cultivates extensive contacts in conventional and alternative media and is prepared to issue well-crafted press releases in quick response to news placement opportunities, consistently and frequently. They develop expertise and effective innovations in the use of websites, weblogs, e-mail newsletters, instant messaging, alternative print publications and independent film, video, and radio.
The Communications group is responsible for researching the best quality information on all aspects of the EDA's election integrity campaign, and adapting and conveying this information in various communications media for a variety of audiences and purposes, including (for example) introductory fact sheets on electronic voting for the general public, training materials for election integrity activists, publicity collateral, press releases, briefings for elections officials and legislators, and technical presentations in support of legal initiatives. Communications Subgroups include: Website, E-mail Network, Research, Writing, Graphics, and Audio/Visual.
The Public Education Working Group utilizes all available communication media, in combination with effective instructional approaches, to prepare, distribute, and effectively present messages educating citizens about the crisis in American elections, and motivating them to become part of the solution.
The Volunteer Recruitment and Training Working Group helps find the best match for EDA volunteers, and also works to coordinate and promote local and state recruitment and training activities by collecting best-practice methods from regional affiliates, developing informational and recruitment materials, and sharing ideas, materials, and methods.
Every civic interest group has a shared interest in fair elections and honest vote counts. The Organizational Liaison group's charge is to expand the election integrity movement by engaging other organizations of every variety in the common project of restoring electoral democracy and legitimate, representative government. This group pursues alliances with civic, social, cultural, political, labor, and religious groups at local, regional, and national levels.
The Fundraising Working Group works to expand the base of individual donors whose contributions have enabled EDA's initiatives to date, while seeking to augment that support with major foundation grants and major individual gifts.
The Events Production Working Group has two specialized sub-groups: Audience Events, and Demonstration Events – charged with managing all aspects of EDA public events productions, developing the contacts, procedures and skills to manage everything from planning, permits, and publicity through the practical, physical arrangements for producing audience events as well as managing large assemblies of people in directed, coordinated action.
First, open an EDA website account [57], then complete this registration survey [58] to join the Working Group that best matches your interests.
Volunteer Recruitment and Training
Description: County-based organizations will form committees dedicated to continuous volunteer recruitment and training to expand the electoral integrity movement and its capabilities. Recruitment methods will include local speaking engagements before political, social, and civic organizations of all kinds; regularly scheduled public education events; information tabling at events hosted by other organizations; and volunteer recruitment announcements circulated by print media and by e-mail newsletters bearing live links to volunteer signup pages at local, regional, and national websites.
Volunteers will be cross-trained in a variety of skills necessary for a full-spectrum campaign to restore electoral integrity, such as conducting research and investigation, writing and producing informational materials, monitoring elections, conducting parallel elections, publicity, fundraising, public education and volunteer recruitment, and outreach and liaison with other organizations and civic constituencies.
The Alliance will help coordinate and promote these local and state recruitment and training activities by collecting best-practice methods from activists around the nation, and making these easily accessible at the national website; and by facilitating effective communications between regional Alliance affiliates via a national e-mail network.
Acting Coordinator: Sherry Healy [61] CA
Members:
Eileen Wilkinson NY
Joanna Herlihy MA
Dan Ashby CA
GO TO THE FORUM [62]
(Forum access requires Working Group registration [63])
