IHCenter Member Group

Voter Action is a national non-profit advocacy group that provides legal, research and organizing support to ensure election integrity in the United States.

Current focus

The United States is facing perhaps the biggest election crisis in recent history as we approach the 2006 midterms due to the unprecedented use of unreliable and untrustworthy voting machines.

2004 saw tremendous gains in voter turn out - the highest in 36 years. Historically, however, not much attention has been paid to what happens with those votes once the ballots have been cast.

Voter Action's current focus is to protect as many jurisdictions as possible from the acquisition and use of privatized, electronic voting systems. These systems have not only proven to be extremely vulnerable to vote tampering, but also have a long history of malfunction and breakdown causing wide scale voter disenfranchisement.

These systems fail on 5 counts:

1. They make fraud easy, accessible and untraceable;
2. They are unreliable and cause voter disenfranchisement - electronic voting machines frequently malfunction (switch votes, lose massive amounts of votes, count votes backwards, fail to record votes, etc.) and break down causing long lines and disruption to the voting process;
3. They do not currently meet the needs of the majority of the disabled for whom they are being purchased;
4. They will cost the tax payers more of their state and county money than alternative systems;
5. Even with a "WPAT", a "voter verifiable paper audit trail" printer attached, they are not useful for audits or recounts and are ripe for problematic election challenges which will have the courts, not the voters, deciding the winner.

Fortunately, there are solutions. Voter Action is taking concrete steps to help turn the situation around; we're taking it to the courts. We have found that one of the most effective means for dealing with this situation is through litigation.

In January of 2005, Voter Action filed a lawsuit in New Mexico to block all electronic voting systems and now the state has chosen to use only optically scanned paper ballots - the Voter Action preferred voting method. Optical scan ballots (with ballot marking devices for the blind and disabled) are preferred because they can be audited and recounted and have a lasting record of the voter's true intent. Paper ballots also never fail to boot up.

In California, we filed suit against the usage of Diebold Tsx touch screen voting systems and immediately entered into agreements with half of the counties to stop the use of touch screen voting systems. We have filed similar actions in Arizona, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and now Florida. We consult with a variety of organizations and voters from across the country.

In September a judge ruled favorably on our Colorado case essentially decertifying the e-voting machines  after the 2006 mid-terms, mandating new standards be developed and all voting systems to comply with those standards. With appropriate funding we can continue to work in Colorado to ensure that all voting systems to be used are more reliable, trustworthy and can be transparently verified.

The Voter Action Model

The Voter Action model of recruiting well established and highly respected law firms on a pro bono basis in each state is widening the legal knowledge pool for effective citizen action. Voter Action has working relationships and is co-litigating with the following firms:

• Arizona  -  Perkins Coie Brown & Bain
• California  -  Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin
• Colorado  -  Wheeler, Trigg, & Kennedy
• New Mexico  -  Freedman Boyd & Daniels
• New York -  Emery Celli Cuti Brinckerhoff & Abady
• Pennsylvania - Drinker Biddle & Reath, The Public Law Center of Philadelphia, and the Law Office of Marian Schneider

Advisory Board

Voter Action works with well respected computer security professors from prestigious universities such as Johns Hopkins and Stanford. We are connected to citizens' organizations for election integrity at both the grassroots and the national levels. Our Advisory Board includes:

• Dr. Alexander  Keyssar, Chaired Professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.  Author of "The Right to Vote - The Contested History of Democracy in the United States".
• Dr. David Dill, computer security professor at Stanford University.
• Dr. Aviel Rubin, computer security professor at Johns Hopkins University.  Director of the National Science Foundation's ACCURATE voting project.
• Peter Coyote, actor and tireless advocate for civic justice and fair elections.
• Dolores Huerta, Co-founder of United Farm Workers and tireless civil rights advocate.

The Future

Blocking electronic voting in key states for declaratory relief by 2008 is Voter Action's immediate mission.  That and more must be done continuously to ensure that our democracy deserves its name.  The public must be more involved in every aspect of our elections and not allow private companies and closed processes to count our votes.  Voter Action will continue to work on behalf of the public interest to ensure the accuracy of our voting systems by providing legal resources, research and organizing support that will enhance civic oversight and participation in the election process.

Voter Action's legal strategy for 2006-2008 will begin with preparations for intensive collection of evidence on the performance of electronic voting systems in the November 2006 election. In states and counties in which anomalies and irregularities are reported, Voter Action will conduct and collect witness interviews, make freedom of information requests, and commission statistical analysis of election results like that performed on the November 2004 results in New Mexico.  Voter Action is partnering with other election integrity organizations and activists in collecting this evidence.  Voter Action will then use that evidence to identify targets for legal action, advocacy, and outreach efforts.

We can't do this work without you! Our effectiveness depends largely upon your support. Please help us by making a donation to keep us working on behalf of meaningful election integrity.

For additional information, please contact us at info@voteraction.org 206-723-1941 www.voteraction.org.