The Integrity of the Vote

I went to 2 Audits of the Voting Machines last week, as a volunteer for the Connecticut Citizens Election Audit Coalition.

This is a group effort of Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, and CT Voters Count.

That's a lot of links. Here's the story:

After every election the Secretary of the State (now the truly wonderful Denise Merrill) has volunteers select 10% of the polling places in Connecticut for an Audit. Contrary to the concerns of Registrars of Voters, this is totally random. I even assisted in the selection this year, to guarantee that I could truly witness the randomness of the selection process.

There are people (you could be one!) who volunteer to observe the  machine audits after every election in CT. It is only an investment of time. I have volunteered 10 times, with only one repeat town.

The Audit involves a review of the Chain of Custody for the ballots from the election, followed by a hand count of the ballots in order to confirm that the scanners and memory cards for the voting machines are operating accurately. There is a section of the report where we record concerns of the Registrars of Voters, so that their voice can be heard.

Luther Weeks, an actuary, collates all town audit reports from the volunteers and then writes a final report ( here is the report from November 2011 - .pdf) which he submits - with recommendations - to the Secretary of the State and the Government Administration and Elections Committee.

So I volunteer. I go spend a few hours in a town where I don't live, checking boxes on a form, ensuring that the Registrars have all the information they need to conduct a fair election, finding out if the ballots or machines were tampered with (has not happened in Connecticut to my knowledge), and fulfilling a civic obligation.

Volunteer now for the post-election Audit which will follow our Presidential election in November!

(Brownie Points are self-assigned.)

Did Your Vote Count?

This is a question in the news as several of the Primary elections held last week have been disputable.
In Windsor, as of yesterday, ONE VOTE made the difference.  Here is the link to CT News Junkie's report on the last of several recounts in that District. And here is the link to New Haven Independent's story on the tight race in the 116th district.

After every election since September of 2008 I have served as a volunteer with the Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition's observing of the Election Audits.I have observed something like 8 or more Audits.

What happens is this: The Secretary of the State randomly selects 10% of the elections held so that the machines and the ballot count can be verified. In the upcoming Audit this will be for votes placed on August 14th. On a designated day the Registrars and their staff (and helpers) run an Audit of ballots processed through the voting machines.

Citizen Observers are there to assist in the ongoing effort to ensure the integrity of the vote and create statewide procedures.

It is easy and (call me a nerd, I dare you!) it is fun.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sign-up Now for the August 2012 Post-Election Audit!

Connecticut Voters
Want to Know

You can help
provide answers!

Investment? One Day
Value to Democracy? Priceless

The Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition (League of Women Voters of Connecticut, Common Cause, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, and CTVotersCount.org) organizes citizen volunteers to observe the Connecticut Post-Election Audits.

• Is the chain-of-custody followed? How are the votes tallied?
• Can we have confidence in our optical scanners?
• Can we have confidence that the intent of the voters was reflected in the election result?

Here is your chance to make a difference!!!
To fully cover the  post-election audits, we need more observers in every region of Connecticut.
You are invited to become part of our non-partisan observer corps for the upcoming primary and election.  The Coalition will provide observer materials and one hour of training via conference call. Citizens observers will donate up to one full day observing and reporting during the audit period following the election or primary.
Without our volunteer observers and you, nobody but a small number of local election officials would know what happens in post-election audits.