Citizens Taking Action And How You Can, Too

As David Cobb states, the greatest threat to democracy today is the illusion that we still have one. People have the general confidence that we can simply vote people into and out of office according to the votes of the majority of the people. This has proven to be false in the national elections of 2000, 2002 and 2004. Americans' persistent faith that elections, as they currently function, will solve any political dilemma is a dangerous illusion. The illusion causes apathy, complacency and inattention to the key mechanism and life blood of our democracy: the counting of votes.

WE MUST INSIST ON ACCURATE VOTE COUNTS AND ELECTORAL INTEGRITY ABOVE ALL!

Note the subject "We" in the above sentence. This is not the "we" that means "all those political activists who blog, write letters and make phone calls, because that's what they do, and it's their "thing". No. This is the "We" in "WE THE PEOPLE". It is the Preamble-to-the-Constitution "We" in extra large cursive on aging parchment paper! It means ANYONE AND EVERYONE who actually still believes in that document!

So check that reference under that definition and consider who we are referring to here. Then watch the videos below to gain tools and inspiration for how to fight back and reclaim our democracy. Thank you.

SAVE R VOTE: Citizen Monitoring Exposes Illegal, Unverified, Expensive Procedures in Riverside, CA

Check out Tom Courbat's report on the SAVE R VOTE project at the DFA "Democracy Fest" in San Diego (7/15/06)
Click to download the SAVE R VOTE Report PDF [1] | Word [1]
Click to find out more and join the Election Monitoring group. [1]

For more videos like this, see EDA TV - Blip.tv Blog! [2]

Hand Counting of Paper Ballots in NH (2004)

These videos are being made available to promote the use of hand counted paper ballot election systems nationwide. The videos show the easy, transparent, observable, secure, and fair nature of this method of vote counting when done within the community by members of the community and administered by good and honest election officials.

What you see in these videos is the civic and community component that is present in proper election administration, as well as the methodology. Our hope is that people will begin to remember the heart that is the grassroots, community-centered American election.

By virtue of the Democracy for New Hampshire website copyright notice, these videos are considered part of the DFNH copyrighted material. We are making these videos available for download and distribution for personal and educational purposes, but they may not be downloaded and used or repurposed for any form of financial gain whatsoever by any individual or organization.

All videos are in .wmv format. To download videos from Internet Explorer,
right-click and select "Save target as" or from Firefox select "Save link as." Choose the location on your hard drive where you want to save the videos and click "Save."

Download the video of Lyndeborough, NH [3] (43MB)
- ballot by ballot tally method of hand counting, 980 ballots cast and counted

Download the video of Wilton, NH [4] (28 MB) - ballot by ballot tally method of hand counting, 2,274 ballots cast and counted

Download the video or the NH State Recount [5] (23MB) - ballot pile method of hand counting, 22,024 votes cast and counted

Democracy Denied in CA 50: Busby/Bilbray Sham Election and Its Fallout (July 2006)

Brad Friedman, Mimi Kennedy & Barbara Gail Jacobson Fight for Honest Election in CD 50

Part 2 of Press Conference re Busby/Bilbray
contest at DemFest on July 15, 2006