Here is what you can do to help in Virginia:
1. Check you voter registration status. Although it is too late to register to vote, some existing voters may have been deleted or had their information altered during the recent switch over to electronic voter databases. If a voter has been deleted in error it is better to try to fix the problem now than on Election Day.
2. Call your Voter Registrar’s Office (Contact Information Here) and ask them to make sure they have emergency paper ballots on hand in localities with touchscreens and enough ballots printed if you are in an optical scan locality. Urge them to adopt voter-verified paper ballot based optical scan voting systems in the future to protect your vote and avoid long lines at the polls.
3. Vote absentee if you have a valid reason such as personal or business travel, long workday, disability, student, etc. Contact your Voter Registrar’s Office.
4. Sign up to be a poll worker on Election Day so you can be on the front line protecting our voting system. Many localities are still short on workers and need your help.
5. Donate to the Southern Coalition for Secured Voting. Your donations allow us to continue our vital work of fighting to protect Virginia’s voters!
6. Call your State Senator and Delegate and urge them to support statewide voter-verified paper ballot based optical scan voting systems with random audits in 2009. General Assembly Contact Information Here.
Update on the Southern Coalition for Secured Voting's Election Protection Program 2008
Battleground State of Virginia
Original Statement on SCSV Election Protection Program 2008
Email Us For More Information info@securedvoting.org
PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TO THE SCSV
No major events to report on the legislative front. It looks like we are going forward with things as they are now. There is no longer enough time to reform the whole system, but there are many issues we can and will address.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS:
1. Fairfax County has now leased paper ballot optical scan machines, so voters will be able to vote without interruption, long lines, and on a secured ballot.
2. Arlington City has also acquired optical scan machines to give voters the option of voting on a paper ballot.
3. Charlottesville City has just approved the purchase of optical scan voting machines, so voters there will be able to choose between electronic or paper ballots.
4. Several localities that have electronic voting machines are now printing emergency paper ballots as backups in case voting machines fail on election day. We will post an update soon on this matter about the progress being made.
MAJOR PROBLEMS WE CAN STILL FIX:
1. Long lines at the polls due to too few machines.
2. Voting disruptions due to malfunctions on Direct Record Electronic (DRE) Touchscreen voting machines that lead to breakdown.
3. Voter suppression tactics at the polls.
4. Improper Voter Rights Education
5. Improper use of provisional ballots, when official ballots should be given to voter.
6. Voter registration database malfunctions and omissions.
WHAT WE CAN DO:
1. Continue to spread voter education about voting rights, fighting voter suppression, entitlement to provisional ballot in cases of contested status, and encouraging people to CHECK THEIR REGISTRATION STATUS due to the state conversion to an electronic database that has deleted and altered people's registration information and could bar them from voting on election day.
2. Continue to press counties that only have paperless electronic voting machines to purchase or lease optical scan machines, so that voters will be able to vote on paper ballots.
3. Continue to press counties that only have paperless electronic voting machines and will not purchase new optical scan machines to keep on stock emergency paper ballots so that voters will not be turned away from the polls when voting machines fail and breakdown.
4. Continue to setup our pollworker and poll monitor program so that we will have trained people on the ground to deal with voter suppression tactics, to provide proper security for election equipment and ballots, to correct misinformation on voting rights including provisional ballots, and to be the first line of defense against assaults on our democracy in whatever form they come.
WHAT YOU CAN DO PERSONALLY:
1. Call your local voter registrar and make sure you are still registered to vote (even if you have voted recently).
2. Sign up to be a part of our pollworker program. Pollworkers are the front line of our election system and we need good and honest people to make sure things run smoothly, the law is followed, and voters are protected in exercising their constitutional rights. If you would like to sign up or would like more information please send an email to info@securedvoting.org.
3. Call your local voter registrar and tell them you would like to make sure you can vote on a paper ballot in the November election.
4. Please Donate to the Southern Coalition for Secured Voting. In order to do what must be done between now and election day, we need financial support. You can donate through our website or if you are more comfortable you can send donations by check or money order through the mail system. Please visit our Donation Page for details.