(Welcome to our new weekly feature at this time on Thursday afternoons, between now and the election: Blue Army.)
I see Christy wrote a very nice post this morning sweetly suggesting you help get out the vote this Fall. Christy is your blog Mom and she loves you. She makes muffins and plants flowers and feeds the little birds. I'm your mean gay Dad, your Blue Army General, and I didn't build the Inca Empire by kissing your little scrapes and owies. Sunday Saturday mornings, Christy says "Pull up a chair," but Thursday afternoons, I'm here to say, "Get off yer ass!" So listen up, or I'll leave you tied up in the jungle for the ants:
It's time to enlist. Get yer boots on and shine 'em up. Get ready, locked and loaded: we're raising a big Blue Army and we need every last one of you. Yeeeaaarrrggghhhh!!
In a minute, I'm gonna tell you exactly what I need you to do, but first here's why we need you to enlist. It's not just about the candidates, though it is about the candidates. It's not just about the November elections, though it is about the November elections. It's not just about saving the country, the Constitution, the planet, or ending torture, though it is about all those things. It's about you: we all need you to learn how to do field work, how to make campaigns work, and that starts with whatever little itty bit of volunteering you can do back in your home town, or even from your phone at home. Best of all, get up out of the house. These Blue Army boots were meant for walking precincts.
Each Thursday at this time between now and the election, we'll share experiences from the field. There are people here who are already highly experienced and willing to help you rookies learn the ropes, so all you old campaign warriors, please mark this time slot down each week to stop by and help with training. Share some stories and help answer questions and give people tips in the comments.
Speaking of shared wisdom from the field, here's what one of my local Drinking Liberally friends, who is also a local party organizer, has to say to all of you:
No matter how little time or money you have available, there is always something you can do to help out your local progressives. Obviously campaigns always need monetary donations, even in small quantities, but they also need manpower. Here are some suggestions for how you can make a difference:
1. help staff your local polling place and hand out sample ballots on election day, or offer water or snacks to those who are staffing that poll
2. help a campaign with administrative tasks in the office, like stuffing envelopes or assembling packets for canvassers
3. write a letter to the editor of your community paper in support of the candidate of your choice
4. help a campaign or local Democratic committee with pre-election canvassing
5. put a yard sign in your yard or bumper sticker on your car or trash can
6. help out with a campaign phone bank and make GOTV calls
7. offer to help drive people to the polls who don't have cars
Every little bit helps!
Those are some great ideas from someone who told me that when she's talking to wingnuts and gets tired of them, she glances at her watch and interrupts them to say, "Um, I have to go now: I'm late for my abortion."
Okay, are you ready to enlist? Here are your "orders" for this week:
- Contact Do More Than Vote and use their easy interface to get connected to the right volunteer organization for you in your area. And by the way, DMTV has been put together by people just like you, and they could use some well earned donations for building all this amazing infrastructure on their own. Use their ActBlue link to send them some love. (Ahem: now, please). UPDATE: They're currently at
$793.34$1,323.34. Can we push that to $2000.00 today? - Volunteer to become a poll worker. No bitching about fairness at the polls: become part of the solution. Go here.
- Volunteer for Howard Dean's new army through your local Democratic Party.
- Make sure you're registered to vote and harrass your sympathetic friends to register. You can do it online in mere minutes. Stoller tells you how.
- Review any of the many links and options Christy offered you this morning. If you can't find something to do from there, you're not looking. No time to waste: pick one of these options to enlist!
A final note: even if you think your local candidates suck, do something, if you can stomach it. Why? Training. We need you to learn how it's down, or even document the atrocities when it's done wrong (send me your horror stories: Howie and I may have use for them).
Imagine what the world will be like if by this time two years from now, we have tens of thousands of us around the country with experience, running and staffing elections. Even little guerrilla bands of us on the local level can change the country when there are enough of us. I'm here to help raise and train a Blue Army to oppose and defeat the Imperial Redcoats. It's all about the infrastructure, baby. The establishment fears you, but it does not fear you enough. . . yet. So get to it.
Discussion questions: have you been a campaign worker or volunteer? What was it like? What did you learn? If you've never done it yet, what stands in your way? If you used to be afraid to start but then jumped in, what pushed you over the edge?
Related posts:
- Blue Dogs Can’t Find a Bone? PAC Donations Plummet
- Democratic Staffer: Blue Dogs are “Hell Nos” on Public Option
- AFL-CIO President Trumka: Union-Blue Dog Relationship Changing, Filibustering Health Care Un-American
- NY-23: The Failure Of Blue Dogging
- Blue Dog-Targeted Ad Campaign Doesn’t Target Blue Dogs
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I’ve been a poll worker. You definitely don’t do it for the money, but the process itself is encouraging, and they sure do need the help
HastertBUS!!!
Lock and load, people, saddle up and ride!!
Make sure you educate yourself on deadlines for registration and on absentee voting in your precinct/county. Encourage every one to be registered and to vote absentee if they are eligible.
You have the power to take your country back – right there in your shoe leather!
Bootz!
I think there used to be a British rock group called “gay dad” – great name.
Thanks for loading up the Nancy Sinatra scopitone! One my favorites. She does a very nice “pony” at the end.
I sure hope Pelosi is making damn sure she doesn’t have anybody who will embarrass the party now.
We don’t need these waters muddied. We need the blue army to be motivated enough to win.
You can be sure that any Dem who has left a record of any peccadillo will be displayed for all to see by Hastert et alii if Pelosi doesn’t do it first.
Kick ass, Pach!
Uh, beggin’ the General’s pardon, sir . . .
Christy asks us to pull up a chair on Saturday mornings, not Sundays.
Space Monkeys for a bluer America!
Thanks, Pach, this is really important.
Git yer boots on!
Peterr @ 9
Major? Major? Go ahead and fix that for me, will ya?
Damn staff.
Pach,
Did you ever see the old Charleton Heston chestnut “The Naked Jungle”? Laughably bad. Talk about your ant army!
Reporting for duty. I live in northern Illinois, and have a longstanding distaste for Denny Hastert. I will contact the Laesch campaign and do what I can.
nj progressive: Nope. Never saw it.
DING DING DING!
Everyone, a big round of applause for recruit dannyM.
Let us know next week, dannyM, how it works out.
First time I ever worked for a campaign was for the Howard Dean primary campaign. It was both exhilarating and heart-breaking, but it taught me that it was just not that difficult to do, and I met some of the coolest people as I did it.
I guess I was just plain p*ssed off enough to do it, and inspired enough by a plain-talking, straight-shooting candidate like Howard Dean. Got started on line at BlogforAmerica.com, then Meetup.com, just kept following my bliss.
Been a canvasser, done literature drops, given lifts to the polls (including a 90-year-old priest who took my offer of a ride then voted for Kerry during the primary, the old coot!). I’ve cleaned and painted organization offices and primped the place for pressers and fundraising events, cooked hor d’oeuvres and done a lot of dishes, poured alchohol while taking checks. Spent a LOT of time on website design and blog posting; prepared literature for candidates and run around getting printing done for them. I’ve now done a lot of what it takes since I started in August of 2003.
And now I’m a grizzled veteran, just coached a rookie intern this week on door-to-door.
You can do it. It only requires showing up with an open mind and willing hands.
Sometimes you might even have to fake it — I wasn’t keen on talking face-to-face with strangers, but I kept doing until I was good enough at it to coach an intern. It’s perfectly okay to tell someone, hey, I’m just a citizen like you, just started doing this, forgive me if I’m not the most polished canvasser/phonebanker/what-have-you — and then go on with your task. You’ll be amazed at how much slack people will cut you; make the most it.
This is THE time to become not pacific Democrats, but activist Democrats. Some I have heard say, we (Democrats) need do nothing, but stand by and watch the Republicans self-destruct. Shoot. I haven’t had this much political fun since Bill Clinton took out George Bush, the first. But this is the time to ACT. We’ve got to show no mercy. We have a duty to hit the Republicans with everything we’ve got. And then some. And it is NOT too early for us to turn our eyes toward the big prize just twenty-four very short months away.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 18
A bunch of us ARE pacific Democrats out here on the left coast. What we’re NOT is passive Democrats.
Well, I can’t walk a precinct from NZ, but I did send out a personal fundraising appeal on behalf of the Democratic candidate in Kansas who is running against Jim Ryun to all email addresses I have for those who are in her district or near it.
And I keep sending her, Nancy Boyda,the talking points that I gather from FDL from other candidates. My husband is encouraging her to run a more spirited campaign. But, believe me, all the info shared here, can be shared with all candidates. You have no idea what a gift the toobz are for sharing such good info.
So keep up the disemination of specific talking points. I mean, here I am, offering strategy and campaign advice, garnered from you good folks, for free! If only she will take it and use it now…..
Here’s something to get your motors running…
http://thinkprogress.org/
WEBB chatting w/ leslie . . . ummmm wolf on Cnn.
EPUed again, so I’m reposting:
Re: The Drudge “scoop”: This is another major misstep. Drudge loves a scoop, which is why he’s running with it. My take on it is that the now-revealed page, a conservative Republican with political ambitions, has to come up with some sort of story to explain why he was having cybersex with another man. He should have just gone with, “Look, I’m not proud of it, but I needed a good letter of rec, and the guy started sending me dirty messages. I figured talking dirty to an old man was a small price to pay to get a letter of rec from a sitting Congressman.” I think most people would’ve bought that. He probably would’ve been able to dodge questions about his sexual orientation. Instead, we have the “prank” scenario. This does nothing to help Foley (he still took the bait), and it makes the page look both vicious and culpable for the whole scandal. I understand that the ploy is to shift blame to “enemy political operatives”, but I just don’t see how it’s going to work. Now people are going to start asking the page what he did with the IMs. How did they get from the page to these “enemy political operatives”? You’re in a jam, kid. And you sure as hell can’t tell a whopper like that to the FBI. I think this page is going to be the first kid outed as a result of this scandal.
gotta say, i think all the suggestions are excellent… but the “orders” part doesn’t sit well with me. hard core anti-authoritarian here.
btw, anyone want to join me (and possibly revdeb and scarecrow) in CT on saturday? want lamont to replace lieberman? then email me at speakeasy dot net
Pach (and all fdlers)
have you seen the recent cartoon in the post??? it portrays a scene with foley and mcgreevey that has every gay stereotype in the book. there is floral wallpaper, a village men poster, spittle coming out of mcgreevey’s mouth, mcgreevey goosing foley, mcgreevey wearing a (presumably) red ribbon lapel pin and, no joke, a hamster/gerbil cage in the background.
it’s beyond offensive. i really don’t have anything else to say. except i can only imagine the response if the post ran a cartoon containing similar stereotypes portraying minority politicians or women.
http://www.nypost.com/delonas/de…nas/ delonas.htm
gawker has a good taken on this. would this be appropriate spotlight material?
Peterr @ 19
Yes. And after spending most of my life in No. Cali, the two things I miss most are the cool Pacific waters, and my non-pacific political sisters and brothers. It’s different here. Perhaps you can imagine?
I am amazed at the number of my gay friends who are not registered to vote and have never voted. That’s all changing, though. I have been on the war path and militant on the issue. In the last seven days, I’ve gotten three of my friends registered. And each of them will be casting early ballots. That’s three new votes for Democrats here in conservative AZ.
So, are you wondering which of your friends isn’t registered? Try asking the gay ones… I am wondering if it’s just the gay people I know, or if it’s a larger pattern. Whatever it is, that’s a good demographic to go after, I think. :)
I’ve been doing all of this for years, beginning in 1976 and the Udall campaign. In 2004 I had a grim feeling as I was going door-to-door. This year it feels different. The Dems aren’t depressed this time, and the Repubs are. Or, like one man whose doorstep I was on last week, they seem to have an inkling that all is not well. After refusing to accept any Democratic literature, he told me to keep it up. “That’s what this country’s about.” Yes, sir, it is.
I try to connect with people. Being a gardener, I make comments about the nice garden, or the little pot of flowers, or say something nice about their house. I admire their kitties, let the dogs sniff my ankles and correspond with my dogs.
Then I talk about how close this election will be, and how their vote is important. If they are still listening, I talk about our congressional candidate, whose race is getting the least attention, and what he wants to do if elected. I usually mention Iraq and health care. I smile. I’m polite. I identify myself as being from nearby, so they don’t think of me as an outsider.
If they identify as planning to vote for Democrats I make sure they are registered to vote, and offer an absentee ballot request form. If they are on a main street I ask if they would be willing to have signs in their yard.
This isn’t rocket science, folks. These personal contacts are more effective than the deluge of calls right before the election. And Pach is right. It takes an army. This is a big country.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 26
Having spent most of my life in Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, with a couple of forays beyond that, I can do more than imagine. Put it this way: John Ashcroft was my governor and senator for a while. Loved it when he was beaten by Mel Carnahan’s wife!
Of course, out here we’ve got Ahnold now, and it’s not looking good for getting rid of him.
Tap tap tap. Is this thing on?
Just this morning talked to my boss about taking off Nov 7 (to volunteer somehow) & 8 (to either celebrate, or commiserate).
Keep pushing!
The DMTV ActBlue link is at $793.34 right now. Can we help them out?
We are inching closer to the abyss.
“Bombings as US Casualties Mount as Iraq has Worst Week Yet”
http://www.commondreams.org/he…..005-02.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1005-29.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1005-22.htm
pooch @ 25
The link doesn’t work. I tried finding it and the cartoon is by someone named Ramirez who wants to point to Gerry Studds, etc.
I saw a link this morning in an email from the Randi Rhodes show to this study reported in Pediatrics. It asks whether children are at risk from homosexual men and answers no. With the current efforts by guys like Pat Buchanan and Tony Perkins to make this about Mark Foley being gay, a few facts for pushback are in order.
I’ve been walking precincts here in CA-11 every weekend since the middle of August. We definitely could use more bodies walking precincts and phonebanking if you are in Northern California. Every weekend I get more and more hopeful. There is more and more anti-Pombo sentiment and more and more positive name recognition for McNerney (one of the Blue America candidates).
It is FDL and all the stories that came out of the Lamont primary that inspired me to do more than vote and do more than write a check.
Believe me, it feels great.
“The gay problem in the GOP”
http://www.boston.com/news/glo…..n_the_gop/
sjvalleygal @
35
DING DING DING!
You rock.
Susan in Iowa @ 34
Missing Link
Susan in Iowa @ 34
sorry, try this
http://www.nypost.com/delonas/delonas.htm
“The Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser, and You”
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1005-34.htm
I just donated to DMTV at their ActBlue Pac page:
http://www.actblue.com/page/dmtvdonate
It really does feel great to work on a campaign. You meet like minded folks, learn about something that you may never have known about, and you are participating in a democracy.
You can make a difference, and all contributions of time, effort and money make a difference.
General Pach, I’ll be reporting to duty with the Mendez campaign next Wednesday. From there on out until election day I will be involved in some way. From what I just heard the phone they need a lot of help in southern NJ.
I have to head out, folks, but when people jump in and say what they’re going to do to pitch in, please give them virtual applause and thanks. They’re stepping up to fight for us all.
I’ll check in later.
I gotta love this. The reason Hastert will not quit is because he is worried about a smooth transition after his departure. Hastert is concerned that Boehner will not have the votes to become speaker. That’s the nub of it. So… did DeLay call Boehner and tell Boehner not to let Denny resign? Wouldn’t surprise me. Notta bit.
Umm, er .. . here’s one I got resting on my chest. Let say someone signs up to work for a campaign. They are assigned to Town Dem HQ. There is some friction in the local party. Maybe even some apathy about your candidate. Now you are calling for a candidate that you didn’t sign up to support, nor do you want to support, and any entreaties to make more dedicated time to the candidate you signed up to work for are met with a sort of helpless shrug and er . . . apathy. What do you do?
Jim in AZ @ 27
i have no gay friends
of voting age
lol
brb late for nambla meeting
:-*
OT but positive news from ABC
“With midterm elections less than five weeks away, the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that about half of likely voters say recent disclosures of corruption and scandal in Congress will be very or extremely important when they cast their vote next month.
The poll of 1,501 adults, including 741 likely voters, occurred Monday through Wednesday as House Republican leaders came under increasing pressure to explain what they knew of sexually explicit messages from former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida to teenage pages.”
Hadn’t had time to read previos comments so I apologize if this has already been shared.
Pachacutec @
41
me too. took all of two minutes.
CA-11 (McNerney v. Pombo) is the one in-play race that’s close, geographically. I’ll look into ways to help. Maybe Kos and I can carpool over to the Central Valley…:~)
If anyone is near CA-11 in Northern California, check out volunteer opportunities for the McNerney campaign. We could use you!
jerrymcnerney.org
sjvalleygal @ 49
Thanks SJValleyGal, in Sunnyvale here. I’ll check it out, unfortunately between full-time work and full-time school, I’m low on time and even lower on cash!
I have been doing volunteer work, in varying amounts, for the Democratic Party and candidates since 1972.
The point I would emphasize is to make your own efforts part of a greater, organized effort. If you are doing voter registration, do it in the precincts that the local party or campaign has selected as most likely to produce new Democratic voters.
If there is no active local VR effort, at least find out which precincts in your area vote the most heavily Democratic, and concentrate your registration efforts there, as neighbors tend to vote similarly to one another.
If you are doing get-out-the-vote, reminding people to vote or offering rides to the polls, use voter registration lists obtained from your local party, campaign, or election office, targeting the Democrats, or do it as part of an organized effort that identifies the likely voting choices ahead of time, through phone calls or door-to-door canvassing.
Don’t start knocking on every door in a neighborhood to remind people to get out and vote; concentrate on registered Democrats (or others who have been predetermined to be leaning toward Democratic candidates).
In summary, coordinate your efforts to maximize their impact.
mu* @ 44
short answer – something else.
seriously though, i would not let myself be forced to volunteer for a candidate i didn’t support.
are there any other local groups (or even the campaign itself – of the candidate you support) you can volunteer with?
mu* @ 45
Contact the campaign manager or other staff of the candidate you want to work for. Tell them you will work for their candidate but do not wish to work at the party headquarters. There should be something you can do to help your candidate directly.
I signed up to work on Peter Welch’s campaign – a great progressive candidate for Vermont’s house seat. Unfortunately I’ve been slammed with work with a deadline for next week – which has chewed up all my time. I’ve been fretting about not being able to get in; but I did manage to do something useful: catching up on the news before bed on Sunday I read a diary on Daily Kos on the Rethug candidate’s plagiarism on her website. I clicked through to the diarist’s website and she had done some great research and had it all laid out. I copied the page and sent it to the Peter Welch campaign staff; and to a progressive journalist in Burlington. I got an early email Monday from both the campaign and the journalist: very happy with what I sent. By afternoon, it was all over the news. Tuesday morning, it was front page top of the fold headlines in all the big papers here. Gave the rethug candidate unpleasant headlines and unsavory brouhaha all week. I figure that had to be equal to four hours stuffing envelopes.
Next week? Canvassing for the first time.
I just put in a submission to be a poll worker here in Berkeley. I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while, because I’m good with computers and have a pretty good understanding of the weaknesses of Diebold machines.
This election, Alameda County is using a mark-sense system manufactured by Sequoia. Of the high-tech solutions, it’s one of the better choices, because if the system is hacked, you can always go back to the paper ballots. But I don’t understand why we need high-tech systems at all, when Canada seems to be able to do just fine with hand-counting.
punaise @ 48: maybe there’s room for one more in the car? Only thing is, I’m not sure you’ll be able to stand my penchant for bad puns. I’m especially fond of bilingual ones and referencing computer science terminology.
Raph Levien @ 56
I suspect punaise is strong enough to withstand that kind of punishment.
Pachacutec @ 32
Yes. I’m in.
Gotta finish up my sermon tomorrow in order to free me up to go to CT on Sat. The MA races are ones that I’m not really worried about but anything I can do to help Ned out I will.
So, the question is whether or not I can stay away from the threads tomorrow long enough to really concentrate on Job. Odd time to have picked to preach on the ultimate victim of a bet, but there it is. Lots to ponder and write about.
neurophius @
57
Punsters get used to being relegated to the back of the comic bus.
RevDeb @ 58
yeah for revdeb!!!!
(p.s. i really, really want deval to win too!!)
23 Us service men and women killed since Oct.1. This is Oct. 5.
Do we need more reasons to knock those bastards out of office?
Fox (!) via Josh:
One thing that puzzles me is where is the religious right-wing going to go? This IS the Bush-Rove base. What with all this Republican pedo business. And Republican gay outing going on, they’ll perhaps be looking for a new home. Now I profess to want a ‘big-tent’ Democratic party. But I don’t want these nut cases in my party. Not that they’d want that anyway. Perhaps the religious nuts and the Log Cabin weirdos can form some sort of odd symbiotic relationship. The whole thing is so damn delicious!
I had this thought too:
State by state, if we could find out what precincts use Diebolds or other hackable system; then make sure that we focus our attention on those precincts to head off and document any dirty tricks – as poll watchers or as citizen watchdogs.
Let no diebold using precinct go unwatched. Ideally several people at each of these, with video, and cell phone.
Another race that has closed since the scandal is Patty Wetterling against Bachman in MN-6 which is the reddest in MN. She has run about 10 points behind Bachman, but now is within 3 points. The big guns have come out against her from the national republicans, but her had are on too.
PredatorGate just got worse. More pages coming forward about Foley:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thebl….._form.html
———
“Three more former congressional pages have come forward to reveal what they call “sexual approaches” over the Internet from former Congressman Mark Foley.
The pages served in the classes of 1998, 2000 and 2002. They independently approached ABC News after the Foley resignation through the Brian Ross & the Investigative Team’s tip line on ABCNews.com. None wanted their names used because of the sensitive nature of the communications.
“I was seventeen years old and just returned to [my home state] when Foley began to e-mail me, asking if I had ever seen my page roommates naked and how big their penises were,” said the page in the 2002 class.
The former page also said Foley told him that if he happened to be in Washington, D.C., he could stay at Foley’s home if he “would engage in oral sex” with Foley.”
punaise @ 63
Sounds to me like the Powers That Be in the Republican Party (Rove?) have decided that Hastert has to go, and their friend Faux is throwing out a rationale for that decision. The leaked poll results are the writing on the wall for Hastert. Now, while still maintaining he did the right thing, he can fall on his sword for the good of the party, not out of some kind of acknowledgment of personal failings.
hey everybody
I just saw the latest poll on Connecticut and saw that Lieberman led Lamont by the score of 53 to 33. Can this be true? If so, this really stinks.
I hope that Lieberman is not really leading by that much (Lieber is such a republican whore)
Three More Former Pages Accuse Foley of Online Sexual Approaches
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thebl….._form.html
*xyz @ 69
And yet Drudge is claiming it was all a prank by a page… uh huh.
RevDeb @ 62
YES. But I don’t like it when the so called front runner for the grand prize in 2008, (or any other Democrat) refuses to conclude that the Iraq War is lost. And then to call for a pull-out. I want our soldiers home!
neurophius @ 67
the night of the long knives may be looming.
(Denster Divin’: he coulda bin a contendah)
karelroc @ 68
Joe is up by about 10 according to those who get it. See what Matt has to say here.
Things have been kind of quiet on the Ned front, but HoJo’s latest remarks have fired up our base, so we have work to do. He came back from a larger deficit in less time before the primaries.
Time to get to work!
e.c. @
123
Can’t help mentioning this typo from a couple of threads back. Last line should read
“Talk about being between Iraq and a hard place.“
TPM Muckracker headline –
Hastert: I Want a Good, Thorough Probe
That ABC story linked by xyz is a killer. No wonder Foley resigned. Now what we need to hear is that the House leadership got wind of any of this.
windje @ 75
an Upper Potomac?
A high punaise @ 78
maybe a high moronic but if he was really kinky he’d want to be Fristed
Posting from Diane Benson for Congress HQ in Anchorage.
http://bensonforcongress.com/
We’re pretty pumped about the Fox network’s reporting of a Dem US House pickup of up to 50 seats if Denny Hastert does a Hastert’s Last Stand gig!
The Alaska Democratic Party sued the Alaska Division of Elections over a year ago to obtain the GEMS files from the Diebold database of our 2004 election. The Dems finally prevailed two weeks ago. After preliminary assessment of the data by experts, here is their press release from about an hour ago:
Anchorage – The Alaska Democratic Party today asked the Division of Elections to explain why changes were made in July of 2006 to the electronic database that contains the results of the 2004 General Election.
A review of the audit trail of the GEMS database for the 2004 elections shows that modifications were made to the database on July 12 and July 13, 2006.
The Democratic Party recently obtained the electronic GEMS file by suing the Division of Elections in State Superior Court. The Division of Elections had refused for more than nine months to release the public records, but did so late last month just before a hearing was scheduled to begin in the case.
“We do not understand why 2004 election results would be manually modified in 2006 after the complaint was filed asking that you produce the database,” Jake Metcalfe, chair of the Alaska Democratic Party, said in a letter to Division of Elections Director Whitney Brewster. “Data from the 2004 election may have been altered,” Metcalfe said.
One of the modifications made in 2006 appears to alter data for House District 5. In that district’s race for the State House, Democrat Tim June lost by 59 votes to Republican Bill Thomas. [see attached audit log of GEMS database]
The Democratic Party also questioned the 293 manual entries that were made to the electronic file between 11/2/04 and 12/2/04. [see attached audit log of GEMS showing examples]. According to the same audit log, the Primary Election for 2004 had 17 manual entries.
“Two hundred and ninety-three is an incredibly high number of manual entries,” said Jim March, a consultant and member of the Board of Directors of Black Box Voting who examined the GEMS database.
“Manual entries usually happen when a ballot is too crumpled to scan or is marked in blood, crayon or in an unusual manner. A small number of manual entries is normal. In an election about your size, approximately 20 or so manual entries would be common. Having 293 manual entries for the General Election is completely off the charts, while the 17 manual entries that were made for the Primary is within the normal range. The high number of manual entries is troubling since several elections were decided by less than 100 votes,” March said.
One of the problems revealed by examining the GEMS database is that every individual who modified the file had the same “admin” User ID, March said.
Failing to assign each individual who has access to the database a unique User ID negates an important safeguard, he said.
“We now know the Alaska Division of Elections isn’t tracking which human being performs which action on the central database of votes, including a startlingly high number of manual entries of vote data. If a person’s actions in the election aren’t tracked, personal accountability fails. This is a classic flaw in the Diebold product,” March said.
The Democratic Party filed new public records requests asking for a copy of the GEMS database as it existed before the changes made in July, 2006, and for the name and affiliation of each person who did any manual modification to the 2004 General Election GEMS database at any time, what data that person entered manually, and why those changes were made or those data were entered manually.
March said he has not yet been able to determine why the votes from the 2004 election in the district-by-district reports do not match the statewide summary. “First we need to get the correct version of the database. The one that the Division of Elections gave the Democratic Party appears to have been altered after the fact,” he said.
According to the Division of Elections’ vote reports that were produced by the state’s Diebold computer system and are posted on the Division’s official web site, a far larger number of votes were cast than the official totals reported in the statewide summary. In the case of President George Bush’s votes, the district-by-district totals add up to 292,267, but his official total was only 190,889, a difference of 101,378 votes. In the U.S. Senate race, Lisa Murkowski received 226,992 votes in the district-by-district totals, but her official total was only 149,446, a difference of 77,546 votes.
In 20 of the 40 State House Districts, more ballots were cast than there are registered voters in the district, according to information on the state’s web site. In 16 election districts, the voter turnout percentage shown is over 200%
Interesting, indeed……
Mr. Teller, I cannot understand all that the press release you just reported meant, but the little I can perceive is that this is proof of something not O.K. Hope that more comes out on this and am positive you will know when something else comes up. Thanks for keeping us informed.
Sometimes the truth takes forever to come to the top of public knowledge. And only with the hard work of people who believe in the truth in the first place.
RevDeb @ 74
Lamont needs to hit Joey Low Road hard on his failure to criticize his Repug buddies in the House “leadership.” I can envision TV spots with parents talking about how disgusted they are with Joe over this failure.
For the past five weeks I’ve spent countless hours researching small radio stations – ones outside Arbitron market metros, but with signals covering the congressional district of promising Blue America candidates. Progressives with a real chance to win this November.
It’s been a hell of a lot of work, (and fun) but also challenging. I’ve had to step outside my comfort level and speak to folks in the bible belt about “progressives” and “throwing the rascals out”, not knowing what reaction I’d get on the other end of the line.
Right now we have enough money in the Blue America PAC to fund two congressional races – and frankly, that isn’t enough for me. We need to affect MORE races this election! To this end, Howie is running a contest at DWT. Check it out and enter. (You WILL already be a winner!)
Remember what John Laesch said about the “Have You Had Enough?” video on his own campaign site? The sitemeter had uncovered the sad truth that people from Hastert’s campaign had been clicking onto Laesch’s site to watch the customized “Have You Had Enough?” video, “over and over and over again”?
Imagine the reaction a rubber-stamp Republican will have when he’s stuck in traffic and hears “it’s time to throw (said rubber-stamp) OOooouuuuut!” on his car radio… Like the ad says, “Priceless!”
A lot of people have put a lot of work into ROFLMAO’s “Have You Had Enough?” campaign. You can help, too – by adding to the Blue America PAC kitty to fund targeted, local progressive radio campaigns designed to take back Congress this November.
This song is absolutely infectious. It will get inside of voter’s heads and not let go! The more people we can get this song to, the more that will be hearing it in their minds as they walk into the polling booth in November…
No pressure or anything… I’m just sayin’
I’m taking a rare look at a local TV station to see if they covered a protest today, and I just saw an ad by the local repug congressman accusing his Democratic challenger of endorsing John Kerry’s plan to “cut and run” from Iraq. I wonder whether the congressman will cut and run from his duty to hold the House “leadership” accountable in the Foley scandal.
Jacqrat @ 82
I’m tapped out for today, but good on ya for your efforts.
say, how ’bout those A’s?
Ok a 50 for Act Blue to get the video out and another 25 for John Laesch because he needs to beat that damned Hastert. And he’s a good guy. Met him at YKos, he will do us proud.
Folks, remember when you see bullpoo on your lo cal TV, in your lo cal paper, or hear it on the radio, write to the station manager or editor.
New thread up top, for those who care.
ABC reports Bush has called Hastert to give him his support. Hee hee heee!
punaise @ 85
LET’S GO OAKLAND!
RevDeb @ 86
Thank you, ma’am! Also for your hard work in CT.
mu* — what neurophius said, do exactly that.
What I’d also ask for directly from the campaign:
– yard signs for your own yard, and for anyone else you know to be a supporter;
– candidate literature, to distribute in your precinct
– whether you can get on a mailing list for events and talking points (if they send them out);
– do they have phonebanks operated for the candidate only;
– do they need lit drop help or signage distribution.
You can follow the DNC’s Neighborhood Outreach program, but insert the candidate’s literature into that process; be sure to ask folks if they want to have a yard sign, donate time or money (if they offer to donate money, be sure to tell them how to do it online or by snail mail).
You’ll find a way to support the candidate if you want to do this badly enough. You can also start a blog dedicated to this candidate; be sure to send a link to other larger progressive blogs so that you can blogroll each other (remember MyLeftNutmeg and all the other CT bloggers? Just like that).
Go for it, mu*. You have the power.
;-)
Jacqrat @ 91
If we are all doing what we can, we shall overcome!
Jacqrat, just because you were so persuasive I kicked in again for BlueAmerica PAC.
egregious @
94
Thank you, Egy, and all!
Thanks Rayne and all! I think I badly needed some advice and sanity and perspective. I get worried when I feel I am not being a “team player.”
I just signed up last night to phone bank for a mayoral candidate up here in Canada… a good progressive guy that I’ve known my whole life. And since they have a hard time getting into apartment buildings to canvas/leaflet drop, I’m going to get them into my building!!
I’m pretty excited as this is the first time I’ve ever volunteered like this!
I wanted to pop back in to recognize and thank all of you who jumped in to say the things you are doing. You all are fantastic, real heroes.
Months ago, when people around here were writing the name of a community hero at the top of each thread (”Fitz”), I argued, without much popularity, that the real hereoes are those among us who were working without fanfare to change politics in this country for the long term. That led some people to “chant” the word “Rootz,” which pleased me.
I have nothing against the “Fitz” thing, I just don’t want people to inadvertently become spectators, waiting for someone on a white horse to change the country for us.
All of you who chimed in today, I hope you’ll consider joining us again next week at this time slot to tell us what you’re seeing, experiencing, learning, the good or the bad, from your political work.
You rock.