Play Our Latest forum
#ElectionProtection Forum: Who is Interested in Fair Elections?
Democrats say Republicans are trying to rig the next election by changing the rules and who enforces them.
Republicans claim same-day registration and more mail-in voting will allow people who are not eligible to cast votes.
The Green Party says Democrats are trying to eliminate them by changing the rules for matching funds.
Our guests are:
- Josi Riederer - Policy Director, Center for Common Ground
- Carl Romanelli - former Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate
- Maureen Riordan - Litigation Counsel at the Public Interest Legal Foundation
What are viewers saying about our last forum?
"Very informative. Thank you Bennie & Lulu & excellent guests"
- Kelley Lane
"Fair and balanced. Good for you all for reaching out and really giving us some in depth education."
- George Ripley
"Excellent discussion… I learned a lot."
- Lon Diffenderfer
SAVE THE DATES
#ElectionProtection Forum: The Reboot!
Tuesday, Feb 8th • 4pm PT | 7pm ET
Join on YouTube or on Facebook (link to come)
The long-awaited #ElectionProtection Reboot.
Our newly vibrant program with:
- better visuals, and
- two tiers of information
...to ensure that newcomers to election protection, and those who have a deep knowledge base all find the programs valuable.
We'll give a broad overview tonight of:
- What is Election Protection?
- Why is it urgent?
- Why does it have to be transpartisan?
- Key vocabulary and concepts.
Plus: What can we all do to ensure the midterm elections are secure, fair, accessible, well-administered, and publicly verifiable? This will be our guiding focus as we continue the forums this year.
Moderator: Lulu Friesdat and Co-Host: Bennie Smith
Find out more about our forums.
#ElectionProtection Forum: Ep 42
Tuesday, Feb 22nd • 4pm PT | 7pm ET
Details to come!
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Our Election Protection Forums
Balanced information that you won't get anywhere else!
The #ElectionProtection forums are a vibrant, revealing dialogue about the problems with our elections & what's needed to improve them. We discuss election security, disability issues, voting rights, and election reform, from perspectives across the political spectrum.
New forums every other Tuesday, 4pm PT | 7pm ET. See upcoming forums.
Broadcast live on YouTube & Facebook. Forums can be watched later at the same links.
Moderator: Lulu Friesdat, Election Security Journalist, Co-Founder & Executive Director of SMART Elections
Co-Host: Bennie Smith, Shelby County TN Election Commissioner & Software Developer
Series sponsored by SMART Elections. Thank you to Fractured Atlas, our fiscal sponsor.
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- We have ASL interpreters, courtesy of the Center for Disability Rights.
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Protecting elections is critical now.
Information you won't get anywhere else.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
"Let me say again how WONDERFUL all your seminars have been --just unbelievably outstanding!!" - Dr. Ruth H. Strauss MD
"That was great tonight! .... Overall just a great program..." - Matthew Kohn, Filmmaker
"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
SMART Elections in the New York Times
NYC Elections Fiasco - 130,000 Test Ballots Mixed with Real Ones
Brian M. Rosenthal, Dana Rubinstein, Andy Newman, Anne Barnard and Ed Shanahan | June 30, 2021
This week the New York Times quoted our Executive Director about the latest blunder of the New York City Board of Elections.
"It's just one fiasco after another, year after year," said Lulu Friesdat, executive director of Smart Elections, an elections reform group. "The fact that we haven't made the effort to change that is shocking. It's appalling."
brooklyn transparency project
698 More Ballots Than Voters
Uncooperative Board of Elections
698 More Ballots Than Voters
Uncooperative Board of Elections
Uncooperative Board of Elections
Uncooperative Board of Elections
YOUR VOTE IS UNDER ATTACK
The New York State Board of Elections rejected certification of the ExpressVote XL at their meeting on 1/28/21. The ExpressVote XL is a "hybrid" voting machine that has a design flaw called a "shared paper path." It is considered very risky by security experts.
Learn more about hybrid voting machines with a shared paper path.
Professor Rich DeMillo, Chair of the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy at Georgia Tech, said, “It is encouraging that the commissioners refused to certify the ExpressVoteXL, an all-in-one ballot marking device that poses extraordinary risks for the voters of New York.” DeMillo is one of a group of over 50 experts, good government and disability rights groups who signed a letter opposing certification of the voting machine.
However, the vendor ES&S is actively working to overcome the issues that were raised during the certification process and is already in conversation again with the NY State Board of Elections to have the system certified. Additionally there are other voting systems being marketed, and even in use here in New York that have the same security issues.
Legislation was proposed to permanently ban hybrid voting machines with a shared paper path from being used in the state. It passed the NY Senate, but it did not pass the NY Assembly.
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 use 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 every Friday at 12pm EST to discuss what can be done. We are
- exploring legislation
- connecting with the NY State Board of Elections & County Commissioners
- researching better voting machines for New York
Register in advance for this meeting:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email and the zoom link.
SMART is an acronym
Latest Forum: Who's Really Interested in Fair Elections?
Hear from 3 legal and elections experts that range from progressive to conservative.