Greetings and Happy New Year from the Coalition for Visible Ballots!
This week begins the critical Presidential election cycle of state caucuses: This Thursday, January 3rd, the Iowa Caucus will be held and the entire nation will be watching the results to determine which candidates for President have the best chance of gaining support in future primaries and of garnering future campaign contributions.
Bev Harris at Black Box Voting has issued a security alert regarding the Iowa caucus which can be viewed in its entirety at www.blackboxvoting.org / Though voting machines are not being used in the caucus - they will be using hand-counted paper ballots- the Republicans' procedures as disclosed so far to Bev and other citizens making inquiries are "sketchy" at best. They are not committing to posting their totals at the precinct level, something the Democrats have stated they will do. Without this critical step, there is no way to truly be able to track the validity of the final caucus results.
We recommend that anyone in Iowa who wants to monitor the caucus there immediately check in at the Black Box Voting website and read up on Bev's suggestions for videotaping and tracking totals and events at each precinct that can be covered, then report back in to BBV later.
She also recommends that we all contact both the Iowa Republican Party and the Iowa Secretary of State to tell them we expect to see those precinct results published at the SAME time they announce the statewide total.
Iowa Republican Party: 515/292-8105
Iowa Secretary of State: 515-281-0145; 515-281-7142 (FAX); email: sos@sos.state.ia.us
For those of you who would like to be involved in helping monitor results, there is an online effort organized through the website www.libertybroadcastnetwork.com . There you can sign up to be a specific county's contact person for election monitors "on the ground" in Iowa on Thursday night who will contact volunteers manning their computers at home, to deliver by phone or e-mail the Republican totals from those precincts if they can get them; you as the remote volunteer will then post those precinct totals on the website for later validation with the "official" totals.
This effort has been organized by Jim Condit Jr., Art Groveman, Walter Reddy and others, some of whom are also plaintiffs on "We the People"'s 50 state "Clean Election Lawsuit". It is an effort strictly involving monitoring the Republican side, probably because the Democrats in this case are using more transparency in their execution (according to what they are stating publicly.)
This effort includes the ability to download affidavits for use in, it is recommended on the site, New Hampshire and then future primary states which I believe will be added later, where electronic voting machines will be used and the "official" totals will be even more suspect.
For Ron Paul supporters, a Texan named Mitchell Stein has created an affidavit campaign for the primaries specific to those who want to monitor the votes for Ron Paul. You can reach him at the e-mail address: mitchell@ronpaulvotecount.com. I do not know if he has created a campaign yet for Iowa, but he has for the upcoming Texas and Florida primaries, and perhaps by now, some of the other states. See: http://www.ronpaulvotecount.com Links to the Florida and Texas efforts for this campaign are below:
Current Florida Web Page- The address of the Florida page is http://www.RonPaulVoteCount.com/florida.html
Current Texas Web Page-The address of the Texas page is http://www.RonPaulVoteCount.com/texas.html
The Presidential candidate (s)election process begins THIS WEEK! Long before November, it will be all over.
NOW is the time to be vigilant! NOW is the time to get involved and monitor elections!
Yours in liberty,
Vickie Karp, National Chair, www.coalitionforvisibleballots.org
