ZERO DAYS TO WISCONSIN RECALL: How you can help!

[We Want Peace]

42. How to Help Protect the WI Recall Elections (and all elections)

• Vote on a paper ballot! Despite the fact that they are often mis-tabulated by computers, as noted above, at least it may be possible to count a paper ballot by hand at some point to determine that it has been tabulated accurately. If you vote on a touch-screen voting system, it will be 100% impossible to ever know that any vote cast on such a system was recorded accurately. If your municipality has touch-screens for you to vote on, request politely but firmly to vote on a paper ballot instead!

• Be at the polls with cameras when they close! Election Integrity expert John Washburn, of Fair Elections Wisconsin, advises that voters should go to polling places just before they close in order to oversee the poll closing process and the printing of results from computer tabulators there.

"Show up for the closing of the elections at eight-o'clock. At that point it's an open meeting, turn on the camera," Washburn told us recently. Once polls close, he notes, the proceedings are then an open meeting by the local board of canvassers which may be recorded by cameras and other devices.

Photograph and/or video-tape the results poll tapes that are printed out by the computers, and anything else you can see. You never know when/if that material may come in handy later. Photos of poll tapes won't ensure the computers tabulated the ballots correctly, but they can help deter the possibility of results being changed later by the central tabulator systems or even on Internet election results reporting websites.

"Record what you see," at the polls, Washburn strongly advises. "If you see anything weird, insist that it be put on the Inspector's Report, because if it ain't on the official election report, it didn't happen." (Inspector's Reports can be printed out here, in case you wish to bring one to the polls.)

• Report any problems you witness If you have a problem voting, or see anything that is troubling, document it as best as possible. As mentioned above, try to see that it gets into your local Inspector's Report at the precinct. But then be sure to report it to the WI Government Accountability Board (G.A.B.) at 866-VOTE-WIS and via email at [e-mail]. We recommend you also file another report at the independent national voter problem hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE.

• Take screenshots of results at home As results are being reported online throughout the night, use your computer to take screenshots of them. Results have a way of magically flipping at various points in the night. But if that can't be proven, it's difficult to demand an explanation for the anomaly later. Add a date and time-stamp to the filename of the graphic when you save the screenshots while viewing them. Again, you never know when or if they will come in handy later! This is something you do not have to be in Wisconsin to do!

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