"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." - Thomas Jefferson

Fair, Transparent Elections

These are practical suggestions for protecting election data preventing fraud. Trustworthy voting systems must be entirely transparent, maintain auditable written records, assure chain-of-custody of all ballots, and be under the control of citizens rather than computers.

Photocopy Ballots in Public View

If ballots are photocopied in public view, at polling stations before they are tabulated, there will be no opportunity for bad actors to manufacture fraudulent ballots. This article proposes a method using a commercial, standalone document scanner.

Hand Count Ballots

Counting ballots by hand eliminates the possibilitiy of computerized tabulation fraud, by making the counting process as transparent as possible. An initial demonstration was recently completed in Kootenai County, Idaho.

Monitor Voter Rolls

Fraudulent voter rolls enable computerized election fraud. We need to keep careful watch over registered voters in our own districts, and have ways to identify and root out phantom voters.

Work with Legislators on Reform

Much reform can be done at the county level, but some problems can only be addressed by trusted legislators. For example, electronic registration and electronic poll books should be prohibited at the state level. Contact your legislators.

Expose Computerized Fraud

Electronic voting systems are complicated, and they facilitate sophisticated, undetectable fraud. The problems with electronic tabulators are difficult to discern, but they need to be exposed.

Become a Poll Watcher

Elections should be so transparent that average citizens can observe them and see for themselves that their votes are being counted. Sign up to be a Poll Work or Watcher here.