Coincident to this week's revelation that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus by herself changed voting machine software just before the April statewide election -- creating, at minimum, mass confusion and delaying vote tallies -- comes some good news for people concerned about "black box" electronic voting machines of questionable reliability.
Wisconsin Wave has formed an umbrella effort to verify the accuracy and integrity of June's recall election, based on troubling data concerning exit polling. We've passed on reports of these concerns here before. Now there will be a concerted, statewide effort to see if there's fire behind the smoke.
Most important, the effort will depend on volunteers in voting districts across the state. You can sign up here: http://wisconsinwave.org/handcount/volunteer
Details from Wisconsin Wave's message this week:
Your volunteer time and financial support is needed immediately to help verify the integrity of the Recall election. Please read on for more info about this urgent effort to safeguard our democracy, and forward this message widely!How did Wisconsin REALLY vote on June 5th?
Exit polls reported by major news outlets at 8pm put the race at a 50-50 dead heat. However less than an hour later, with only 25% of precincts reporting, those same outlets called the race for Walker. This early prediction was later matched by the official count which settled at 53% for Walker and 46% for Barrett.
But was that how Wisconsinites really voted? As recent history such as Ohio in 2004 shows, huge disparities between exit polls and official totals can point to systemic fraud in the tamper-prone machines that count our ballots.
#000000;">These concerns were amplified when citizen-observers monitoring the Racine Senate recount decided to also double check the gubernatorial race. The results were extremely disturbing- in the Racine precincts where observers were stationed, statistically significant differences were found between the recounted totals and the official election-night totals. Even more troubling, in EVERY case these disparities benefited Walker over Barrett, drastically decreasing the likelihood they could've be caused by random error.
The ONLY way to know if the Recall was free of systemic fraud and abuse is to hand count the ballots! A grassroots coalition, which includes the Wisconsin Wave, has recently formed to verify the accuracy and integrity of the election results. Called “Hand Count Votes Now!,’’ we've gotten the ball rolling by filing open records requests to access the ballots in all 72 Wisconsin counties, and teams have already been sent out to perform hand counts. However time is of the essence, and your support is needed right now!
Some counties are threatening to destroy their ballots within the next two weeks unless onerous and arbitrary fees are paid to satisfy the open records request. This means we must raise thousands of dollars in a short amount of the time to complete this vital project. It also means we must move quickly to count as many ballots as we can.
=> To volunteer as a ballot counter at locations throughout the state click here
=> To contribute directly to a special fund that will be used to cover the burdensome costs being imposed by some counties click hereBe sure to forward this email to as many friends, family members, and political contacts as you can!
In Solidarity,
The Wisconsin Wave
