EDA's First-Year Anniversary Report

Election Defense Alliance was officially launched one year ago on July 4, 2006. We were able to work on building the organization for only a short time before we had to shift all our effort to preparing for the November 7 midterm elections. In those four months we managed to accomplish a startling amount of work -- and we've continued to build on that record since.

Whether you're a new acquaintance or long-time supporter, we invite you to review EDA's first year and preview our next on the Anniversary page that follows.

A Partial Listing of EDA's First-year Accomplishments:

• Independent Exit Polls
Determined priority races, selected strategic states, races, and counties, and commissioned exit polls costing $68,000 -- including
unannounced polls as safety checks on the 2006 California primary election for secretary of state and the U.S. Senate election in Montana, independent citizen exit polls in Pennsylvania, and a strategic sampling of 32 counties across the U.S. in the presidential election.

• Election Data Analysis
EDA was uniquely positioned to look in-depth at reported election results, and continues to assemble a national Election Data Archive

• Landslide Denied
Issued press release and report on the startling findings of a 3-million vote discrepancy in the 2006 midterm election results.

• Hand Counted Paper Ballot Manual
Sent to the chief election officers in every state prior to the midterm election, in preparation for the paper-ballot option many states provided.

• Handbook for Progressive Media
Sent advisories to reporters preparing them to recognize how exit polls and official election results would be ‘spun,’ with suggestions and contacts about what to investigate and how.

• Promoted Coordination Among Grassroots Election Integrity Groups
Compiled and shared a roster listing contact information for all known election integrity groups across the nation.

• Contacted Veterans' Groups
Informed them of changes in regulations for overseas military voting that opened up extreme vulnerabilities to corruption, and asked them to pass the word

• Radio Interviews
EDA leaders were guest speakers on about 15 different programs around the country

• Investigated and broke the story about a huge security hole in the Cook County online voter registration database (IL)

• Led county monitoring group of 100 trained members observing entire pre-election, election day, election night and post-election processes; wrote comprehensive report of all violations and 52 clear recommendations. (CA)

• Conducted 4 citizen parallel election polls in OH and 12 in CA

• Participated in election monitoring and recount teams (OH, IL, NH, CA)

• Conducted election monitoring operations in two urban counties (IL)

• Supervised election protection hotline command center in San Francisco (CA)

• Obtained agreement of election officials to conduct parallel hand counts in machine-counted town elections (NH)

• Filmed New Hampshire election hand-counts for use in future training programs (NH)

• Helped coordinate the Video-the-Vote program (FL)

• Involved in several election challenges (KY, WA, and CA)

• Produced the major "We Count" election reform conference with nationally prominent speakers (OH)

• Produced widely televised election integrity town hall rally in San Diego (CA)

• Sponsored educational evenings with election integrity authors Miller, Palast, and Freeman for large audiences (MA, IL, CA)

Post-election Follow-through:

• Established a Universal Ballot Sampling (UBS) protocol for hand-count checking of election results in precincts on election night

• Continued analysis of targeted '06 election contests races and reporting on emerging patterns of 'red shift'

• Continue developing reliable, replicable methodologies for independently verifying officially reported election outcomes

• Met with one Senator and 10 Representatives and/or their aides in Washington DC

• Attended several national and state-level meetings and filed testimony (NASS, EAC, TGDC)

• Made critical contributions to the Holt Bill (HR811) debate, with EDA participants among the most informed and active in educating elected representatives and the public about serious problems with the bill.

• Participated in drafting and promoting multiple public policy letters to Congress on election reform legislation

• Met with secretaries of state and state legislators (MN, OH, CA, IL, TX, NH)

• Contributed to bills and resolutions in several states (CA, MD, NH, IL, TX), including filing 6 bills for election reform, including voter choice in counting and mandatory hand-counting on election night (NH)

• Organized forums of national election integrity activists, elected officials, and the public (OH, NH, NY, NJ, CA)

• Presented the election integrity message at Camp Democracy, National Media Reform, DemFest, and Grassroots Media NYC, and Take Back America conferences

• Have taken a leading role in exposing the serious dangers of vote-by-mail

• Organized and spoke at civic forums in Oakland, Los Angeles, Cambridge, Albany, and Austin to inform the public about critical election issues and distribute educational materials

• Interviewed for more than two dozen radio and TV programs and video documentaries

• Involved in preparing evidence for multiple legal cases (CA)

Your Volunteer and Financial Support Makes It All Possible

Thanks to your understanding of the challenges our nation faces, and thanks to your generosity, Election Defense Alliance was enabled to accomplish all the above. EDA raised and deployed $110,000 in election defense actions.

Moving forward, EDA is applying lessons learned in this election as we plan for 2008. Initially we are turning our focus to building volunteer power in Working Groups. If you have not already, please consider joining in the work and being a representative liaison for your local election integrity group.

Election Defense Alliance was formed specifically to foster coordination and communication among regional election integrity groups, and to promote the sharing of resources and the elimination of duplicative efforts. We are structured so that grassroots activists from around the country can join together to work on solutions applicable everywhere. We do not seek to replace local groups, but rather to enhance their effectiveness.

Again our thanks for your support. Until now, everybody’s time has been volunteer; in order to move forward at a reasonable pace, EDA needs an operating budget of a minimum $150,000. Since we work out of our homes, we have minimal overhead but do need to produce materials, purchase media lists and advertising, and meet many other expenses. (For a representative list of current needs, click here). Most important, we must be able to pay some salaries so that several of our Coordinators can spend full time on all the work still needed in time for the ’08 elections. We hope we can count on you for your continued financial support. Can you help us toward the approximately $12,000 needed each month?