Patriotic Geeks Unite
OK after writing this post, I decided some folks may not care about my story and may just want to get to the nitty gritty. IF so, get past the red typeface and read the rest and don’t forget to spread the info around. If you can’t do it someone you know may be interested. Don’t be afraid or pass judgment on those just may be interested in getting involved in the election process. -thanks
First I became a poll watcher, when my husband and I went to vote one evening, the opscan voting tabulator went down (yeah, we’re not that high tech around here yet. The election judges were uncaring when they were just piling the ballots on top of the machine unsecured. What gets me is that people just walked away unconcerned. That is except for my husband and me. We watched and waiting for about an hour until they sent someone to fix the machine, got it going and tabulated ALL the ballots that had piled up. It was this episode that that caused me to take some action and become and election judge. Get some new blood into the system. Someone that cared for the fairness and security of the election process
My first stint as an election judge was quite interesting. You should see the “deer in the headlights” look of the other election judges (no offense, but usually retirees and usually out of the loop type folks) just when a simple handheld (like a palm pilot) computer device comes out to check voting precincts. The panic ‘oh no, I’m not doing/touching anything about that thing.’ Myself, the first thing is how does it work. I have never owned a hand-held, worked with a hand-held, but Computers and the such don’t scare me. I don’t know the inner workings of many devices and computers, but I’m a pretty good operator. But these folks were terrified of the thing. I wound up using it the most, slowly at first but it got easier as the day went on. I also monitored the fix of the tabulator and the ethics of the election. Most of the other judges just throw up their hands and the slightest of wrinkles.
So, what am I trying to say with all of this. You can’t sit back being a techie, a user and/or a thinker. You need to be a registered voter and be part of the process. You need to use your skills to help usher the election process into the technical age. By doing so you need to be available to donate (some actually pay) your skills to help monitor, fix and uphold the ethics of new tech in our election process. You need to be involved. And if you still don’t think so, why don’t you check out:
Here’s How: (I got this from Mudflats here on wordpress.com and he has a great write-up about what is going on to influence the vote.)
Widest possible distribution needed. Please do spread this in blogs, etc: http://www.votersunite.org/info/ReclaimElections.pdf
This post will no doubt produce howls of objection for the vendors that read it. Black Box Voting is encouraging all individuals with a technical background to search and apply for temporary tech ELECTION SUPPORT jobs for the November 2008 election.
Hiring is underway for temporary technicians to help with voting machines this fall. Vendor dependence is undermining the structure of US elections, as described here in the new report by VotersUnite.org:
We want to see You, the People, enter into the vendor mix directly. http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit2008.pdf
HOW TO FIND TEMPORARY ELECTION TECH POSITIONS:
In a presidential election year, voting machine vendors will hire and train thousands of technicians staffed around the country. For example, anywhere that Election Systems & Software has a machine, they are under contract to provide an on-site support tech. Hart Intercivic, Premier (Diebold), and Sequoia also use Election Day support technicians.
Temporary election tech support jobs have been spotted on hotjobs.com, rollouts.com, and local tech temp firms like (in 2006) DecisionOne. The tech services firm may be a subcontractor for the big four voting machine companies. Sometimes you’ll find the positions advertised by your local county.
Sites like Rollouts.com have you register in their E-tech database. They search for techs based on skill set and area. There isn’t much in the way of a skill set needed for the election projects.
QUIETLY APPLY FOR THE JOBS
Anyone with tech skills interested in safeguarding the November election is encouraged to register at technical recruiting sites and apply for any election-related projects.
CONSIDER ASKING FOR TIME OFF ON YOUR FULL TIME JOB TO DO THIS. This November, there may be no better way to watch the behind-the-scenes process than to be a stagehand, so to speak.
It is not the vendor, and not the government, that has the right to elections information, it is the PUBLIC. Citizens have inalienable rights to sovereignty over the government they created and pay for. These rights cannot be honored without mechanisms to see all information related to elections, and ultimately, to have control processes that honor citizen sovereignty.
That said, it ain’t gonna happen this November. Therefore it is entirely appropriate, patriotic, and important, for citizens to apply for temporary positions as voting machine technicians to provide inside public oversight for the process.
There will be nondisclosure agreements, which are not appropriate at all for public elections, but it’s a reality now that vendors are trespassing on citizen right to know. There may be issues that arise which the public clearly has a right to know. When that happens, a decision must be made.
YOU WON’T BE THE FIRST
We have already been in communications with other patriotic volunteers who have successfully obtained these positions in the past, and are doing this for November.
THERE ARE ALWAYS WAYS TO DEAL WITH IMPORTANT ISSUES IF THEY ENDANGER THE PUBLIC GOOD. You, the People, are needed on the inside of the elections industry this November.
This is a public service bulletin from Black Box Voting.
Black Box Voting Tool Kit 2008 – free download here:
Empower more election watchdog actions:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057
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