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PA League of Young Voters own Dylan Lampe was interviewed by WTAE while he waited in line to vote on Chatham’s campus.
Meanwhile, volunteer Francine Porter was out interviewing voters about their voting experience and thoughts on the election.
Videos like these are being uploaded by the League as well as many other groups and individuals all across the county as part of the Video Your Vote project.
Tags: election day, election protection, stories, videoyourvote, voters
No cell phones, no cameras, a new ban in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties is keeping all cameras out because they will “distract” first-time voters.
This will make election protection efforts, like VideoYourVote, a lot more difficult.
Terry Griffin, Western PA Field Organizer, and Liz Rincon, Executive State Director for the PA League spoke on the drawbacks of this ban…see the news story here
The PA League and the PAVoice Election Protection coalition will still be participating in VideoYourVote, by going to polls to ask voters about their voting experiences. And don’t forget to call 866-OUR-VOTE if you see a problem at the polls to report it right away!
Tags: 2008, allegheny, camera ban, election coverage, election protection, pbs, poll problems, presidential election, videoyourvote, voter rights, westmoreland
This would not have happened were it not for the incredible pressure we all put on the BoE within the last week. Jamming the phones on Thursday must have left an impression, forcing the Board to take action.
Even so, there’s still much more to be done. For starters, the process needs to be far more open and transparent than it was. In this day and age, there’s no reason to only talk about something after the fact, even if it takes place on a weekend — people will disseminate the relevant information virally via electronic communication. We could have known that the audit would take place when it did.
Also, the county needs to go through and check more than 18 out of the 4,700 machines — yes, that’s right, they checked fewer than 0.3% of the machines — that we will be voting on in just one week.
Why is this all so important? The software that our voting machines use was updated a few months ago, but we had no way of knowing that the updated software still complied with state and federal regulations. After a massive public outcry at a County Council meeting in September (see Success!), the Council passed a resolution calling on the Elections Board to audit the software. The Elections Division, in turn, started stonewalling, claiming that the process would take too long — requiring a three-month bidding process before the audit could even start — and that there was no state-established protocol for an audit.
If we can’t be confident that our voting machines will count our votes accurately, what’s the point in voting in the first place?
Terry encouraging Pitt students to call County Executive Dan Onorato and ask him to verify the county's electronic voting machine software before the Nov. 4th election.
In a democracy such as ours, when those who represent our interests to our government fall short of doing the work of the people, to whom do we turn? Each other! The PA League of Young Voters has been calling for the people of Allegheny County to address their concerns about the integrity of the operating software in the electronic touch-screen voting machines to our county officials. When Michelle Obama came to University of Pittsburgh campus on October, 16th, Leaguers passed out some 800 leaflets containing the County Executive’s office phone number, instructions for writing a letter to the editor of the local newspapers, and information about our local government to a crowd of hundreds of eager voters. Everyone pulled out their cell phones, began making calls, and passed the information on to each other.
Terry took to the wall, walking along the line of speech-goers, proclaiming the importance of ratcheting up public pressure to direct the County Executive and the Board of Elections to take all necessary and reasonable steps to ensure that the paperless voting machines record and count each and every vote in Allegheny County on November, 4th, and in every election. Consequently, hundreds of people from around the Pittsburgh area who care to have their voices heard have experienced their collective power and the duty to influence the decisions of our elected officials. The flood of phone calls reportedly tied up County Executive Dan Onorato’s phone line for a good portion of the morning.
Now go the the Board of Elections meeting this Tuesday October 21st, 10am, and be there when the County Executive and the two At-Large County Councilmen make the decision. Our presence will influence!
Make sure every vote is counted correctly!
Electronic voting machines have been in PA for a few elections now, but the Allegheny County hasn’t certified the authenticity of the software, which can be hacked or replaced fairly easily.
The Everest Report, commissioned by the Ohio Secretary of State, showed that these voting machines have almost no security features. The voting machines are stored in an unwatched and unlocked warehouse, where it wouldn’t be hard for someone to tamper with them. If we can’t have a paper trail, THE LEAST we can have is the assurance that our electronic voting machines have been checked by a third party for software authenticity.
County Executive Dan Onorato is on the three-person county Board of Elections for Allegheny County.
The other two members have publicly stated that they are in favor of certifying the software.
Read more:
Debate hot over e-vote security, Tribune-Review, Oct 6, 2008
County says it can’t audit voting machines, Post-Gazette, 10/4/2008
Trusted votes: The public needs confidence at the polling place, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 23, 2008