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#ElectionProtection

#ElectionProtection#ElectionProtection#ElectionProtection

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"Let me say again how WONDERFUL all your seminars have been --just unbelievably outstanding!!"  - Dr. Ruth H. Strauss MD 

 "I learn so much from all of your presentations... It was very effective. And a great audience!"  - Dr. Virginia Martin, Election Commissioner, Retired, Columbia Co, NY   

 "Information on election security that you will probably not find anywhere else. Definitely mind blowing..."  - Jennifer Tanner, LA County Voters Action Coalition 

"The SMART Elections forums bring together national experts to explain how elections work from the inside." - Catherine Ray, advocate

'SMART Elections’ Election Protection Series offers a Master Class in Election Security. Lulu Friesdat, her guest speakers and informative visuals not only illustrate the pitfalls of bad voting machine technology but also offer examples of safe alternatives.”  

- Sara Campbell, advocate 

sign up to attend

Get Informed!

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YOUR VOTE IS UNDER ATTACK

The ExpressVote XL could be immediately certified by the New York State Board of Elections at their next meeting on 1/28/21. It's a touchscreen voting machine that counts votes with barcodes. 


Security experts have said that the ExpressVote XL is not secure, and that, "Elections conducted on current BMDs [ballot-marking devices] cannot be confirmed by audits." They do not recommend this type of voting machine. They recommend hand-marked paper ballots, for all voters who are able to mark their ballot by hand, and ballot-marking devices that follow security best-practices for voters with disabilities. 


Here are few reasons why so many groups, experts and advocates are against the certification of the ExpressVote XL. 


  • It is a touch screen voting machine. Touch screen machines can go out of calibration and change votes. 


  • New York has never approved voting on touch screen machines as a primary method of voting and now is not the time to deteriorate our security and our ability to have confidence in our elections. 


  • The ExpressVote XL miscounted tens of thousand votes in a 2019 Pennsylvania election.


Join us on Friday January 22nd at 12pm EST to discuss what can be done. We are


  • Sending a letter to legislators & the State Board of Election Commissioners
  • Supporting the passage of A1115 / S309
  • Organizing a call-in to Governor Cuomo



Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkd-mqrDwqEtRAy0Vvl5tHTqU0cyRCOeMp     


After registering, you will receive a confirmation email and the zoom link.

Fri Meeting Sign Up

FIND OUT ABOUT THE PROBLEMS WITH THE EXPRESSVOTE XL

Over 50 good government, disability, election protection groups and experts have signed a letter opposing certification of the ExpressVote XL.

 

Read the letter.

Have your group sign the letter. 

Send Your Own Letter Today

Sign Up To Attend the Next Forum

Register here. 


What have we learned from the 2020 Election? We know that we have work to do if we are going to have elections that everyone can have confidence in.  


JOIN US AS WE: 

Focus on Audits.

Our guest is Rochester Hills MI City Clerk Tina Barton.


We'll focus on the risk-limiting audits they are conducting.

How do they work?

Do they catch discrepancies? 

Are there problems? 


We'll give you an update on:

THE BATTLE FOR A SECURE ACCESSIBLE VOTING SYSTEM IN NEW YORK 


Join us in the fight for a secure voting system in New York State. On 1/28/21 the New York State Board of Elections will be having a final meeting where they may certify a voting system that security experts say is "bad" and "will deteriorate our security and our ability to have confidence in our elections."


The voting machine is called the ExpressVote XL.


We'll give you the reasons why certification for this machine needs to be stopped, and help you craft your own statement for legislators and the Governor. 


The board will meet on Thursday 1/28 at 12pm EST to decide. 

Sign the Group letter against the ExpressVote XL

Send your own letter to NY officials  - It takes 3 minutes.


Anyone can send a letter. 

NY has historically been a leader on election security and if NY standards are diminished, other states could be affected as well.

You deserve accurate, accessible, secure elections!


Plus:

Our #CountTheVote project looked at close to 300 poll tapes and compared them to results. We'll tell you what we found and where we go from here. 


Learn more about #CountTheVote - our election data project.

  • SMART Elections is actively working with election protection communities to protect and improve our democracy. 
  • Our ongoing #ElectionProtection Series is part of that effort.
  • The forums are every other Tuesday at 7pm EST.
  • Our upcoming forum is on Tuesday 1/26/21 at 7PM EST
  • The next forum after that is on Tuesday 2/9/21 at 7pm EST


The event will be broadcast:

Links to come


Register to receive more information.


This event is part of a non-partisan coalition-building series to inform, empower, and connect advocates on #ElectionProtection. 


This is What Democracy Looks Like!


Join the hundreds of people who are participating in this project, because they believe that our democracy has a long way to go to live up to its promise.


Make your reservation now.


After you register, a reminder with the link & more info will be sent to you.

Videos of earlier forums in the series are on a playlist on our YouTube channel. 

Episode 1

Will My Vote Count?

Episode 2

Was not recorded (Event hosted by private groups.)

Episode 3

Foreign Interference & Insider Rigging

Episode 4

Why Local Fights Matter & How to Win Them

Episode 5

What Type of Voting Machine Am I Using & Why Do I Care?

Episode 6

Voting Machine Vendors - A Criminal History of Deceptive Practices

Episode 7

Audits - Election Security is Just Math

Episode 8

What You Can Do! How to help monitor, protect & verify the accuracy of the election. 

Episode 9 

Legal Strategies - What could go wrong & what can be done? 

Episode 10

The Night Before the Election.

Episode 11

We Can Do this Better | Post-election coverage & the latest on #CountTheVote

Episode 12 - Who Can You Trust? An update on our #CountTheVote project - where we look for evidence that the results are accurate, or locate the places that they're not. Plus updates from on the ground in Georgia, and a new statistical tool to unearth bad #election results.

Episode 13 - Where Do We Go From Here? What would it take to have an election where both sides believe the results?

  • Get rid of proprietary, hackable software 
  • Audit meaningfully & transparently

Episode 14 - All Elections Are Local - Election security expert Professor Rich DeMillo explains some of the issues with Georgia elections & the "Solar Winds" security breach.

Episode 15 - All Eyes on Georgia - The Georgia Senate Run-Off is going to be a nail biter. We walk you through what can be done to ensure the race is accurate and fair. Also  - voting machine vendors real motivations revealed. 

Episode 16 - HR1 (The most ambitious election reform legislation in years) + The Fight for Better Voting Machines


Series sponsored by

SMART Elections


Co-sponsors:

DemCast USA

Democracy Counts

Citizens for Voting Integrity NY

Indivisible Long Beach NY

Indivisible Scarsdale NY

Sierra Club (Lower Hudson Group)

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MAKE SURE EVERY VOTE IS COUNTED

Join this historic project. 

Our data team is looking at election results to see if they add up correctly. We've transcribed and examined poll tapes, audits, recounts, and are now doing public records requests. 


LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT.


We meet every other Tuesday at  7pm EST.

We would love your help!

Join Us!

In the news

SMART Elections Cited as a Leader

Ballot-marking devices in key swing states... by Art Levine

September 23, 2020


"Why  are so many Democrats and their allies not vigorously opposing the  proliferation of BMDs across the electoral landscape? It may be out of  fear that even raising such questions might end up reducing turnout by shaking Democratic voters’ already weak confidence in our election system. BMD critics say they’ve heard this  argument—usually voiced privately— but find it specious. “There is no  indication that talking about election security reduces voter  participation,” says Lulu Friesdat, the president of Smart Elections, another election integrity group fighting BMDs. Friesdat cites a 2018 Harris poll showing that voters were, in fact, more likely to vote if they were worried about hacking."

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Stay Informed!

Elevating Election Reform & Election Security to Urgent National Priorities

  • Voters with disabilities deserve to vote independently, privately and comfortably and ballot marking devices have been developed to help them in that process. But voters with disabilities also deserve to have their votes counted securely as intended; and many of the ballot marking devices being currently sold have serious security vulnerabilities. 

Find out more

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