EDA's First-Year Anniversary Report

One Year Into the Second American Revolution

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.

We're extending our anniversary observances this week and next to bring this website record of EDA's achievements up to date, and to put forth our plans and projects for the months ahead, preparing for what may be the ultimate test of American electoral democracy in November 2008.

If you're new to the site, we invite you to set up an EDA web account (click the "Join" menu link [1]) and subscribe to our Announcements E-mail list [2]. If you already have a web account, please consider getting more directly involved by joining a Working Group [3].

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 [4]

• Landslide Denied
Issued press release and report [5] on the startling findings of a 3-million vote discrepancy in the 2006 midterm election results.

• Hand Counted Paper Ballot Manual [6]
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 [7]
EDA leaders were guest speakers on about 15 different programs around the country

EDA Coordinator Action at the State and Local Levels:

• Investigated and broke the story about a huge security hole [8] 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 [9] 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 [10] (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 [11]). 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?

Thank you.

Year-End Message to Our Supporters

At this season of giving thanks, we in America certainly can count our blessings. We at Election Defense Alliance (EDA) wish we could report that one of those blessings is that honest elections have been restored to the American people and that that threat to our democracy has been stopped. Alas, our significant progress this year is just the beginning and we must continue this critical fight.

This is a non-partisan issue. It is about the most fundamental underpinning of our democracy – free, honest, transparent elections. We must restore safe accountable elections in America with votes counted by citizens, not machines secretly programmed by private corporations.

Study after study, coming out of Princeton, Johns Hopkins, the Government Accountability Office, NYU’s Brennan Center, and the California and Ohio Secretaries of State’s offices, and most recently the State of Colorado, continue to demonstrate that every kind of computerized voting machine used throughout the country is vulnerable to malfunction and malfeasance. With electronic election equipment, as the Brennan Center reported, one person can change the outcome of a race without leaving a trace.

Although the mainstream media remains virtually silent, many races in our recent elections have been stolen and nothing has changed to prevent future elections from being stolen. Election theft is not just possible—it is happening and it will continue to happen. It is available to insiders and outsiders of all parties.

Since its founding on July 4, 2006, EDA has distinguished itself as an election integrity organization of vision and talent with a successful track record. Indeed, in our first year we were busy laying the groundwork in investigative research, compiling data for litigation, writing and filing legislation, creating models of successful election monitoring, educating the public, the media and election officials, and designing protocols for 99+% accurate ballot validation.

We have worked with legislators, news reporters, boards of elections and secretaries of state. We have published over 120 research studies, articles, letters-to-the-editor; given more than 135 radio, TV, film, and video interviews and appearances; produced more than 30 conferences and public programs; testified at scores of county and state hearings; created dozens of trainings; drafted safer protocols for vote counting; designed methodologies for forensic investigations; created models for election monitoring; filmed and exposed violations by election officials; demonstrated a 3 million vote shift in the 2006 election and issued major reports on the tell-tale pattern of vote-shifting.

EDA continues its hard work on several time-critical projects and campaigns, including a court case exposing insider fraud in Pima County, AZ; working to prevent the introduction of theft-enabling computerized election equipment in New York State; an extensive recall campaign for all the dangerous, secretly programmed computerized voting equipment; and an active campaign against vote-by-mail which is dangerous because there is no citizen over-site and accountability of the mail or the vote counting.

Eleven months to go. The work we’ve done has built a strong foundation, and now, with your help, we will intensify and increase our initiatives. We need to set up pilot programs demonstrating EDA’s validation protocol, commission independent polling to assess the validity of official election results in key states, and make public our analyses and conclusions. We need to gather more data as the basis for litigation, distribute handbooks and training films to at least 20 states, develop wider communications and education networks, and expand our professional staff.
To get some detailed insight into how yur contributions can enable these projects, please see: http://www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org/Donate/Wishlist.

Fully funding the above projects alone will cost more than $500,000. Every one of them is important. Our year-end campaign goal is $75,000. We hope you will choose to help support this critical work.

No other progressive agenda will succeed if we cannot make changes at the top governmental levels. And we cannot make those changes until we have honest elections.

The time is short and the need is great. Without the help of the media, our job is especially daunting. Yet we have no choice. Can we turn away and let our democracy die? Can we allow the ‘powers that be’ to manipulate elections so they can maintain control of the future of our country? Your gift of any amount will be greatly appreciated.

Please donate conveniently and securely online at: http://www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org/Donate [12]

Or send checks made out to IHC / ElectionDefense Alliance

and mail to:

Election Defense Alliance
P.O. Box 3152
Culver City, CA 90231-3152

Please include your name, address, phone number and email

Let’s do everything we can to preserve the many blessings our democracy bestows on each of us.

Thank you.

Sally Castleman,
National Chairperson

Your vote may not have counted but your donation will!

Election Defense Alliance is a project of International Humanities Center, a 501 ( c) (3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.