Why is the Upcoming Election an Impending Disaster?

Some disasters you can't prepare for. Some you can. This election is an impending disaster. The projected voter turnout for this upcoming election will exceed all expectations. So, too, will the millions of citizens whose votes will NOT be counted.

Whether you have never had a problem voting or this will be your first time, in order to make sure that your vote counts in the upcoming election you MUST:


Confirm your Voter Registration information is correct before the deadlines

  • This is the first Presidential election requiring each state to have an electronic registration database... and they are filled with errors, e.g., your incorrect name (hyphenated names, married names or nicknames), address or social security number, or you've moved and your address has changed. A failure of the database to "match" the voter's identification will result in your having to vote by provisional ballot.1
  • Well-organized partisan-inspired mass purges of names from registration lists are disenfranchising millions of voters without notice before the election.2
  • Equally well-organized partisan challenges are planned to prevent citizens from voting at their polling places, based on mortgage foreclosure lists, college-based residency, etc. 3
  • Confirm your registration before your state’s deadline. Even in states where such deadlines have occurred, check to see if you can update your registration information by going to the county clerk's office. Registration deadlines that are imminent include: 10/21 - Connecticut; 10/24 - Alabama; 10/25 - Iowa.


Vote Early - either in person or by absentee ballot


Bring any required Voter Identification

  • About half of the states have some form of voter ID law. Be prepared and find out what your state requires before you head to the polls.4


Election Day

  • It’s quite possible the location of your polling place has changed, so confirm where to go on November 4.
  • Many states disallow “campaigning” both within your polling place or close by, e.g., 100 feet. It is possible that some elections officials will interpret any pro-candidate or –issue indication on your clothing and items you are carrying to be “campaigning.” So we recommend you exercise the utmost caution and not wear or bring any such items to your polling place.
  • Find out about your local election officials’ plans for handling ballot shortages, electronic machinery breakdowns and other problems that will arise on Election Day.

Other issues will surely arise on Election Day, mostly due to a lack of resources or foresight, and sometimes incompetence and/or honest mistakes. By any account, the credibility of the election results rests in the fairness, transparency and accountability of our voting process. 

ElectionPreparedness.com makes every attempt to provide nonpartisan information. Ensuring that every eligible voter can have their voice heard on Election Day is in the interests of all parties. However, there is widespread evidence that the results from the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections did not accurately reflect the will of those who voted. Regrettably there are domestic forces who make claims of "voter fraud" that focus on unquestionably rare instances of those who intentionally impersonate voters or who make a mistake, thereby resulting in election-changing, "vote-denying schemes. These include vote 'caging,' improper photo ID requests, blocking registration drives for disabled vets, unaccountable purges, unreliable touch-screen machines, and outright intimidation and deception."

To combat these kinds of issues before Election Day, concerned citizens should ORGANIZE LOCALLY, whether you sign up to be a poll worker or you gather a group of other interested individuals to discuss your concerns with local election officials.

Ultimately and frankly in many jurisdictions, partisanship in your state and your county will determine whether your vote will be targeted. Especially in the crucial battleground states. Especially for the most vulnerable: minority, young, low-income or newly-registered voters.

Make sure you, along with everyone you know - no matter in what state they live - and those most vulnerable in your community…don’t take your and their votes for granted. Now.

  

1 According to The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law:

(a) Florida 's Secretary of State announced on 9/8/08 his plan to enforce the so-called No Match-No Vote rule: "In 2004, about 20 percent of all Floridians who registered to vote — some 300,000 voters — registered in the two weeks just before the deadline. There's every reason to expect a similar flood of applications this year, meaning that a huge percentage of new applicants will be at risk of having their votes go uncounted because of matching. Florida's law is especially troubling because of its disproportionate impact on people of color, who have made up a substantial percentage of new registrants so far this year: although African-American voters made up only 13% of the total applicant pool in 2006-07, they comprised 26% of those blocked by the law, and though Latinos made up only 15% of the total applicant pool, they comprised 39% of those blocked. In contrast, white voters constituted a full 66% of the voter pool, but made up only 17% of those harmed by the matching law."

(b) "[I]n the first month Wisconsin tried matching voter data, nearly a quarter of the matches failed. Indeed, four of the six members of the board that oversees elections couldn't be matched with motor vehicle records because of problems with middle initials and the like. Assuming that the 22% failure rate remains consistent, retroactive matching like that [Attorney General] Van Hollen is pushing for would mean that somewhere between 53,000 and 220,000 Wisconsin voters would have to vote a provisional ballot instead of a regular ballot if they didn't bring acceptable proof of identity and residence to the polls — proof they wouldn't know to bring, since they haven't needed to show it in past elections. That's a serious problem. As the U.S. Election Assistance Commission has explained, ‘[t]he bottom line is that the casting of a proper, traditional ballot constitutes a vote, while the casting or submission of a provisional ballot does not.' So it shouldn't be a surprise that 70% of provisional ballots cast in Wisconsin don't get counted. Van Hollen's proposal is a recipe for chaos, confusion and, inevitably, disenfranchisement.”

2 A report issued on October 1, 2008 , by The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law confirmed that 39 states and the District of Columbia reported purging more than 13 million voters from registration rolls between 2004 and 2006, with little to no transparency. "The secret and inconsistent manner in which purges are conducted make it difficult, if not impossible, to know exactly how many voters are stricken from voting lists erroneously," the report explained, adding, "when purges are made public, they often reveal serious problems."  

3 (a) Foreclosure: While he and other GOP officials subsequently denied such plan, the chairman of the Republican Party in a key battleground county in an important swing state (MI) disclosed their plan to use a list of foreclosed residents as the basis to challenge their right to vote. (b) Students: Last month a Republican county clerk mailed fliers to Colorado College officials misleadingly suggesting that out-of-state students could not register to vote if their parents listed them as dependents on their income tax returns, a statement the Internal Revenue Service says is incorrect.  The local registrar of elections governing Virginia Tech has published even more incorrect statements along these lines, despite a 1979 ruling by the United States Supreme Court that students have the right to register at their college address.

4 The Supreme Court upheld (in Crawford vs. Marion County ) an Indiana law that requires a passport or driver's license in order to vote--even though less than a third of adults in Indiana have a passport and nearly 15 percent do not have a driver's license (mostly the poor and elderly). In all, twenty-four states have passed some form of voter ID laws, supposedly to prevent voter impersonation fraud (a crime that studies have shown is virtually non-existent, as "The Truth About Vote Fraud," a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, clearly shows).