Voter Suppression Wiki - Recently Updated Pages

Media room

dustpaint — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:08:50 CDT

The Voter Suppression Wiki is a non-partisan hub of information and action around efforts to suppress votes in the 2008 U.S. elections. In the last week of the election, our focus is on

providing information and recommendations to media and activists to help get the word out more effectively about what voters can do to protect their voting rights
making information available to voters that will help them vote successfully -- and help other voters
providing detailed information about incidents of voter suppression via our Incident Tracker
partnering with Twitter Vote Report and CREDO Action's Immediate Response Network for reporting and response to election protection information on election day

Media releases, action alerts, blog posts

Media release: Prepare for election day (November 3)
Media release from the Workshop on Last-minute strategies to reduce voter suppression (October 30)
Last-minute strategy roundtable media call, with audio clips on topics such as reaching at-risk communities (October 29)
Workshop report, with recommendations
Action alert #1: Confusing ballots in North Carolina
Voter Suppression Action Alert in North Carolina, Tracy Viselli's action alert post on Reno and Its Discontents
Announcing The Launch Of The Voter Suppression Wiki - Learn, Report, Act, Baratunde Thurston's launch post on Jack and Jill Politics
A wiki, saving democracy?, Jon Pincus' launch post on Liminal States and Pam's House Blend

Additoinal blog posts by Voter Suppression Wiki members are on our blogging about VSWiki page.

Members' first-person experiences with voter suppression

Dropped from the rolls, LindaCA
18,000 ballots not delivered in Denver, Tommytoons
District of Columbia absentee ballots not recieved, BlackWomenInEurope
Chicago workers thought I should vote provisional due to their error, Anonymous
Brewster County (TX) voting issues -- AGAIN, Anonymous

Resources for media and bloggers

We recommend that blogs and other online media sites prominently feature election protection information such as hotline numbers, links to sites where users can check their polling places, and election protection videos. This section also includes links to PSAs for television, radio, and print.

Sample HTML code to include non-partisan election protection information on your site
Election Protection's YouTube channel, a good source for high-quality videos
New America Media's Voter education PSAs (available in multiple languages with state-specific information)

Selected coverage of the Voter Suppression Wiki

Citizens, Media Use Social Media to Monitor Election, Simon Jones, Media Shift
Txt the Vote: Election Protection Goes High Tech, Caitlin Johnson, OneWorld/Yahoo News!
Casting A Ballot, And A Wary Eye, Noam Cohen, New York Times
Voter Suppression Hits the Web, David Herbert, National Journal
Voting activists fight voter suppression with wiki, Linnie Rawlinson, CNN's In the Field
New wiki aims to blunt voter suppression in presidential election, Heather Havenstein, Computerworld
Voter Suppression 'Wiki' Created to Track New, Incoming GOP Assaults on Democracy, Brad Friedman, The BRAD BLOG
Pass On the Voter Suppression Wiki, Maegan Carberry, also featured on Wilshire & Washington -- podcast here
Voter suppression wiki launched, Maegan la Mala, Vivir Latino
Voter Suppression Wiki launches, Shai Sachs, myDD

Contact information

Baratunde Thurston,jackturnerpolitics-at-gmail-dot-com Baratunde is co-founder of Jack and Jill Politics and created the Voter Suppression Wiki.
Jon Pincus, Liminal States, jon {at} achangeiscoming {dot} net Jon is co-author of Tales from the net and the vice-chair for online visibility of the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference, and has been leading the creation of the Wiki and organizing the Workshop
Tracy Viselli tracy@renofabulousmedia.com Tracy is founder of Reno and Its Discontents and has been leading the Voter Suppression Wiki's media outreach.
Andrea Price, indyaccess {at} gmail.com Andrea is President and Chairperson of the Board at Public Access for Indianapolis, and has been working on local communication strategies including PSA distribution, and leading outreach to the Indianapolis community
Harry Waisbren, hwaisbren {at} gmail.com Harry is the Campus Progress representative in Madison, and has been focusing on mobilizing students as well as leading our Madison-area outreach

Poop

lpbt — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:33:48 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Planning and strategy

lpbt — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:33:25 CDT

i pooped on yourr miom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What Is Voter Suppression

lpbt — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:32:30 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Voter Suppression Wiki Home

cwings — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:17:59 CDT

The Voter Suppression wiki is a non-partisan effort to shed light on voter suppression in the 2008 U.S. elections.

LEARN About Voter Suppression

Many people aren't familiar with the wide variety of tactics being used to limit people's votes. See:
>> Voter Suppression Documented

Quick Resources:

If you're a journalist or blogger, please check out our Media Room.

If you have questions or comments, visit the Voter Suppression discussion forum

See the latest voter suppression incidents

REPORT Voter Suppression

This section is where you can report or view reports of suppression activity. There's a standard template for each report and discussion thread. Visit:

>> Incident Tracker

Latest Incidents:
Deceptive email tells George Mason students election is November 5

TAKE ACTION Against Voter Suppression

This is where you do more than get angry. Here you'll find action alerts and resources like printable documents to take with you to the polls. Visit:
>> Action Center

Action Alerts:

Spread the word: if you are in line when polls close, you can still vote!
Prepare for election day
What to do if you have problems voting
Add a Voter Suppression Wiki badge to your website

Need voting help on election day?

English
1-866-OUR-VOTE
1-866-687-8683

Español
1-888-VE-Y-VOTA
1-888-839-8682
Election Protection Wiki's
Resources page
with other hotline numbers

This is not a partisan effort and is not being done on behalf of any candidates for office.

How this site got started:

Election Day Preparation:

Site Announcements:

(November 4) - Chat, Digg, Discuss

(November 3) - Last-minute action to help voters prepare for election day. Includes video. Digg the page.

(November 2) - We have a new rapid-communications tool that works via email, SMS, IM and web.

(November 1) - Work in progress Ohio action hub; please help and give feedback!

(October 31) - Printable documents list, including draft versions of If you have voting problems and More options for the tech-savvyProtecting the Election by "Leveraging" Office Printers for more. Happy Hallowe'en!
... see Jon Pincus'

(October 30) - Media release on Last-minute strategies for reducing voter suppression and check out our brand new Media Room

(October 29) - Workshop report on Last-minute strategies for reducing voter suppressiondetails and audio here.
released; media call

(October 28) - sample "one-page" information
for Wisconsin; feedback, please!

(October 27) - in the NY Times! also, conference call notes here.

(October 26) - discussion on Forward Forum Live discussions here.
(WTDY Madison, streamed live), 8 PM CDT.

(October 25) - conference call today! notes here

(October 24) - announcing a last-minute workshop on Last-minute strategies to reduce voter suppression

(October 21) - Action Alert: 40,000 votes at risk in North Carolina

(September 19) - We're on Twitter. Find us @votesuppression
(September 18, 2008) - We have launched! See the announcements on Jack & Jill Politics, DailyKos, Brave New Films, Huffington Post, Liminal States

Promote this site!

Add a Voter Suppression Wiki badge to your website:

Latest Voter Suppression news from Google News

These are the top stories from Google News' feed, and do not reflect the views or opinions of the voter suppression wiki.

Action Center

Taryn.Elizabeth — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:10:11 CST

Note: you must be a registered user (upper right) to edit these pages, but anyone can carry on a discussion in the footer. If you don't feel like registering, use the discussion threads to offer advice, criticism, links, etc.

Action Alert #1: 40,000 votes at risk in North Carolina. Click here to help!

Action Alert #2: Prepare for election day

What you can do, starting today

Know your polling place, check your registration and know your rights. GoVote.org has a simple online system, and Voters Unite has a state-by-state list of how to check that you're registered. Make sure to have their 1-866-OUR-VOTE and 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA hotline numbers with you when you go to vote. The Election Protection coalition's Elections 101 page is a good place to go to start learning more about your rights -- and YES! magazine has put together a 12 step guide to safeguarding your vote.
Spread the word. Make sure our friends and family have double-checked their registration and know where they're voting. Share this page and other resources with your friends. If you're a blogger or journalist, write about voter suppression and the grassroots election protection movement -- and let your readers know what they can do about it.
Get involved. Introduce yourself and help out with the Voter Suppression Wiki, sign up for CREDO Action's Immediate Response Network, help with Twitter Vote Report, or join in one of the many other great projects working to bring "one person one vote" closer to reality.
Recommendations for elections officials, Election Protection, Poll Workers, and Voters.

Specific Action Campaigns Underway

Progressive Future - Get Their Hands Off Our Votes Petition

"We'll send the petition to the chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties in every state. It's our way of telling them: We're watching. We're spreading the word. And we're not going to let you get away with it."

Steal Back Your Vote - a new voter guide from journalist Greg Palast

Know Your Rights in PA VIDEO

Be a sweeper for the Twitter Vote Report

Twitter will be collecting reports from the polls that will be aggregated and mapped so that we can "see" voting problems around the country in real-time. They have tried to make it very easy for voters to submit reports, but it's possible that submissions will be made incorrectly. To ensure that everyone's voice is heard, they've created a way to clean up their reports so that they can be added to the pool of usable data. This is the job of "sweepers" on election day, and I couldn't encourage you enough to sign up and help them out as they are still in need of volunteers!
If you have any questions or already know that you would like to sign up, please email lead sweeper Matt Cooperrider at mattcooperrider@gmail.com,

Successful actions

JonPincus — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:43:36 CST

Use this page to describe -- or link to -- successful actions, by members of the Voter Suppression Wiki or others. Let's learn from these successes while celebrating them! Please also check out an contribute to the Lessons Learned thread at the bottom of the page ...

Voter Suppression Wiki

We reported an incident to the DOJ for investigation, and another to the California Secretary of State's office.
Work by several members led to an Indianapolis station picking up New American Media's about their PSAs.
Our North Carolina action alert was picked up in feeds, retweets, and reposts by at least 1400 blogs, and people also relayed it to friends and relatives in North Carolina via Facebook and email. We were one of the first sites to highlight this issue online; the overall voter eduction and media outreach campaign was very successful, and our Incident page is the best documentation of the information flow online.
We investigated a report to 866-OUR-VOTE and discovered that the claimed arrests at the polls hadn't been reported to the local election board or the secretary of state -- and so probably hadn't happened. As a result, OurVoteLive changed their presentation to include a caveat: "Note that while Election Protection investigates many of the problems reported to the hotline, calls documented on this site have not been verified prior to posting."
Sites including Pam's House Blend, Progressive Blue, and Twitter Vote Report adopted our recommendation of highlighting 1-866-OUR-VOTE or other election protection information on their homepage
One of our members had his story picked up by OneWorld/Yahoo News.
Our one-page What to do if you have problems voting was posted and printed out for patrons in at least one library -- and translated into Spanish and posted on Standing Firm.
The packing list for the polls video got over 2500 views in the last day before the election.
Our action alert reminding people that they're allowed to vote as long as they're in line when the polls close was picked up by Facing South and on Brad Friedman's radio show.

Elsewhere

PDA of West Virginia got the Secretary of State to yank an ad with misleading information for college students she had been running. More here.
Jon Pincus posted a request for poll workers in Virginia to the One Million Strong for Barack Facebook group and quickly found two volunteers.

Wikis saving democracy: and then there were three

JonPincus — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:22:52 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

North Carolina "straight ticket" votes don't count for Presidential candidates, judges

JonPincus — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:33:14 CST

ACTION ALERT: more information here

What region is affected? (City, County, State)	North Carolina
What voters would be affected?	Voters of any party voting a "straight party line" vote; newer voters, unfamiliar with this provision, are more likely to be affected.
How would tactic suppress votes?	Historically this has caused a 1% "undervote" for President -- an estimated 35,800 votes in 2004. With many new voters this year, it could be higher.
Who is behind it?	Law passed by Democrat-controlled legislature in 1967
Links to media/blog coverage? (provide headline with link, writer, name of outlet/blog and publication date. try to list most recent at top)	Voting Rights Watch: Media exposure, voter education reduces 'lost' presidential votes in tight NC race , Chris Kromm, Facing South, November 6 'Straight tickets' in NC don't vote for president, Mike Baker, AP, October 28 This Year’s Butterfly Ballot , New York Times, October 27 Voter Suppression Action Alert in North Carolina , Tracy Viselli (aka Myrna the Minx), Reno and Its Discontents, October 22 How Bad is North Carolina’s Ballot Flaw? The Numbers Say, Pretty Bad, Lawrence Norden & Margaret Chen, Brennan Center, October 21 Voting Rights Watch: Follow-up on why undervotes are a big problem in North Carolina, Chris Kromm, Facing South, October 21 Voter Suppression Action Alert: Confusing North Carolina Ballots (Spread!), Baratunde Thurston, Jack and Jill Poliitics, October 21 "To vote a straight ticket, mark ballot twice," Ryan Teague Beckwith and Jane Stancill, The News Observer, October 20 Presidential Ballot, TarGator, BlueNC, with several voters sharing positive and negative experiences in the comments Voting Rights Watch: Could confusing ballots swing the presidential election in NC?, Chris Kromm, Facing South, October 20 Action alert: help get the word out about confusing North Carolina ballots, Jon Pincus, Pam's House Blend, October 19 Action Alert: Votes for Obama not being counted in NC! , urthwalker, Daily Kos, October 19 Confused North Carolina Voters Throw Votes Away - Straight Ticket Voting Warning, Joyce McCloy, Black Box Voting.com, October 17 Voting a straight ticket, snopes.com, last updated October 16 Straight-ticket omits presidential race, James T. Hamilton, Charlotte Observer, October 7
Possible laws violated?	None
Embed YouTube if available.	The Obama Straight Flip has information for Democrats. We haven't been able to find any Republican instructional materials -- there's no mention of it on the state party's voting information page. Assistance please!!!!!!!
What's the last known status?	There are signs in polling stations, but according to a report by a poll worker on October 19, many voters are getting it wrong.
What actions can be taken?	see our action alert for more for individual voters: make sure to vote for a Presidential candidate and judges even if you cast a straight party line more generally: Get the word out. Tell your friends and family. Share with your friends on Facebook, MySpace, BlackPlanet, and other social networks. Encourage local media to cover the story. Jon Pincus' Action Alert on Pam's House Blend and Baratunde Thurston's Voter Suppression Action Alert: Confusing North Carolina Ballots (Spread!) on Jack and Jill Poliitics have more.

Additional notes here:

Ben Smith notes that there's a misleading rumor that Texas and Alabama have similar issues.

North Carolina Sample ballot

Note: you must be a registered user (upper right) to edit these pages, but anyone can carry on a discussion in the footer. If you don't feel like registering, use the discussion thread below to discuss this incident, offer advice, criticism, links, etc.

Action alert #1 -- North Carolina "straight party" ballot confusion

JonPincus — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:19:57 CST

Incident report with links to media/blog coverage	North Carolina straight-ticket votes don't count for Presidential race
What region is affected? (City, County, State)	North Carolina
Estimated impact	An estimated 35,800 votes in 2004. With many new voters this year, it could be higher.
Who is responsible?	The confusing ballot was originally mandated by a Democratic-controlled legislature in 1967. In 2004 the executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections suggested the shows "needs to be reviewed and probably be changed" but no action was taken.
How would tactic suppress votes?	Historically this has caused a 1% "undervote" for President. With many new voters this year, it could be higher.
Partisan impact	It's a non-partisan issue affecting all parties, but historically it has affected primarily African Americans. Especially since first-time voters are more likely to make mistakes, it will probably primarily impact Democrats. If the Presidential vote is within .6%-.8%, this could benough to tip the election.
What voters can do	If you decide to vote a straight-ticket vote, here are the instructions from the North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting: 1. Vote for President, 2. Vote Straight ticket option 3. Flip the ballot over and vote for Judicial Contests and local non partisan contests.
How you can help	Tell your friends and family. Share with your friends on Facebook, MySpace, BlackPlanet, and other social networks. Encourage bloggers and local media to cover the story. Discuss it at your workplace and church. If you're with a political campaign, include the information with Get Out the Vote drives. Other suggestions? See the discussion thread!
What's the last known status?	There are signs in polling stations, and in many locations poll workers give good instructions, but individual experience vary.
Blog posts by VSWiki members Note that while the VSWiki is non-partisan, many members discuss things from a partisan perspective on their blogs	Voter Suppression Action Alert in North Carolina, Tracy Viselli (aka Myrna the Minx), Reno and its Discontents, October 22 Voter Suppression Wiki: 40,000+ votes at risk in North Carolina, please help get the word out, Jon Pincus, Pam's House Blend, cross-posted on Liminal States and Oxdown Gazette, October 21 Voter Suppression Action Alert: Confusing North Carolina Ballots (Update w/ Video!), Baratunde Thurston (aka Jack Turner), Jack and Jill Politics , October 21 Action alert: help get the word out about confusing North Carolina ballots, Jon Pincus, Pam's House Blend, cross-posted on Liminal States and Oxdown Gazette, October 19

Additional partisan resources:

While the Voter Suppression Wiki is non-partisan, in many cases partisan resources are the most effective at combatting voter suppression. Use this section to include them.

Democrats

The Obama Straight Flip video
Voting in North Carolina video

Republicans

Incident Tracker

Lillie_Coney — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:36:56 CST

Index Of Reported Incidents

Each incident has its own page with full details and discussion. Please add more as you discover them! Text and video instructins on how to report an incident are at the bottom of the page, below the index.

Also, check out the discussion forum. Seen something around the blogosphere we should be tracking? Please add it here! First-person experiences? Start up a new thread and tell us about them!

National

Alabama

Republican Party stops legal voter registration in prisons

Colorado

Florida

Vote caging in 5 counties
Voters told they could vote by phone
Voter suppression activities reported in Palm Beach County
Absentee Ballots rejected for signature matching.
People being forced ot take provisional ballots due to administrative issues

Georgia

Indiana

Missouri

Michigan

GOP Threatens To Use Foreclosure Lists To Challenge Votes

Nevada

Nevada Robo Calls Targeting Latinos

New York

Absentee ballots misprint reads "Barack Osama"

North Carolina

Straight-ticket votes don't count for Presidential race

Ohio

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

Elections officials lack knowledge of voting rules for felons

Texas

Deceptive emails about straight-ticket voting

Virginia

Washington

Wisconsin

Live feeds

From Our Vote Live's "Real Stories" page:

The Election Protection Wiki's news feed

Adding a new incident

Important: Make sure you are on this page when you add an incident. That way it gets created as a subpage of this one.

Instructions for adding an incident:

Video instructions

Text Instructions

in the navigation window on the left, Add page

in the popup window, type in the Page name. Make it as descriptive as the titles you see above; under Use Template select "Report an Incident"; and then click on Add Page.

click EasyEdit on the new page and include the relevant information.

When you're done making changes on the new page, click Save.

Copy the title of your newly-created page

come back to this page, and click EasyEdit.

Insert a new line to the list above; paste the title you copied from your page. It will auto-format.

In the toolbar at the top, click "suggest links." It will automatically find the page you created.

click Save.

Sample Report

Page Name (try to lead with the name of the state)

What region is affected? provide City, County, State info. If national, use "USA"

What voters would be affected? who is being targeted by the tactic

How would tactic suppress votes?
explain how the suppression works. e.g. scaring young people, rejecting absentee ballots, etc.

Who is behind it? Be as specific as possible. Name, title, affiliation, organization, party

Links to media/blog coverage? (link headline, and list byline, media outlet/blog, date of publication)

provide headline, writer/reporter name, media outlet and date of publication

e.g.

Voter Suppression Is A Fun Game To Some People, by John Doe, Herald Times Post, September 18, 2008

Possible laws violated?

were any state or federal laws violated? list them with link if avail

Embed YouTube if available.
good way to dramatize point. even if you don't know of specific video, use the YouTube widget to search right in the EasyEdit Toolbar. You might find something

What's the last known status? was the tactic halted? is litigation pending?

What actions can be taken? phone numbers to campaigns, addresses for secretary of state offices, links to action campaigns, etc

Additional notes here:

George Mason University: Deceptive email tells students election is November 5

dustpaint — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:59:30 CST

What region is affected? (City, County, State)	Virginia
What voters would be affected?	35,000 people at the school's three campuses in Fairfax, Arlington and Prince William County, including about 30,000 students and 5,000 employees.
How would tactic suppress votes?	If people believe the email, they'll miss voting
Who is behind it?
Links to media/blog coverage? (provide headline with link, writer, name of outlet/blog and publication date. try to list most recent at top)	Hoax voting e-mail targets George Mason University community, Josh White, Washington Post's Virginia Politics Election Hoax Sent Via D.C. Based E-Campaign Group, Brian Krebs, Washington Post's Security Fix
Possible laws violated?	hacking and deceptive campaign practices
Embed YouTube if available.
What's the last known status?	The campus has been fielding calls from confused people all morning. The FBI is investigating.
What actions can be taken?

Additional notes here:

Here are the emails that were sent:

-----Original Message-----
From: ANNOUNCE04-L on behalf of Office of the Provost
Sent: Tue 11/4/2008 1:16 AM
To: ANNOUNCE04-L@mail04.gmu.edu
Subject: Election Day Update

To the Mason Community:

Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

-----Original Message-----
From: Office of the Provost on behalf of Office of the Provost
Sent: Tue 11/4/2008 8:08 AM
To: PROVOSTOFFICE-L@mail04.gmu.edu
Subject: Urgent Voting Information

Dear Colleagues,

It has come to my attention early this morning that a message was hacked into the system fraudulently stating that election day has been moved. I am sure everybody realizes this is a hoax, it is also a serious offense and we are looking into it. Please be reminded that election day is today, November 4th.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

Voter Suppression Documented

dustpaint — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:52:39 CST

Voter Suppression is real. Don't be duped into thinking you can't vote. And make sure your attempt at voting really does count.

Wikipedia defines voter suppression as:

The use of governmental power, political campaign strategy, and private resources aimed at suppressing (i.e. reducing) the total vote of opposition candidacies instead of attempting to change likely voting behavior by changing the opinions of potential voters. This method is particularly effective if a significant amount of voters are intimidated individually because the voter might not consider his or her single vote important.

Below are some highlights (or should we say lowlights) of real cases of recent voter suppression. Check out the Voter Suppression Wiki's incident tracker to learn of over 35 incidents in over 17 states already reported (count expected to increase rapidly).

Evidence of Voter Suppression in '08 Election

Flyers Announce Democrats Vote on November 5th

In Virginia, several reports of an official looking flyer claims Republicans will vote on the 4th, and Democrats on the 5th to ease the load due to larger than expected voter turnout.

18,000 Ballots Not Mailed to Voters in Denver

After blaming the post office, Sequoia Voting Systems later admitted that it never delivered the missing absentee ballots.

Affected voters will have a shorter turnaround for their votes to count as the ballots were sent just last week.

Electronic Voting Machine Problems

Lots of problems with new electronic voting machines. Many reports of voter flipping (where a person may choose Obama, but the vote registers as a Vote for McCain (lots of reports out of Texas and West Virginia, plus Colorado, Tennessee, and South Carolina)

Many voters also complaining of votes not being registered due to picky touch screen issues. Oprah's vote for Obama was almost missed until she audited her ballot only to find out her original vote wasn't recorded!

Voter Database Matching Issues

This year is first time many new, statewide, centralized voter-registration databases will be used in a federal election.

Databases are prone to errors such as misspellings and transposed numbers, plus applicants are prone to make mistakes or write illegibly on applications. The Social Security Administration has acknowledged that matches between its database and voter-registration records have yielded a 28.5 percent error rate.

In Wisconsin, 4 of 6 members if the state's Government Accountability Board didn't match, including Chairman Thomas Cane. In Georgia, the new voter-verification system had flagged over 50,000 people because of computer mismatches. 4500 of them were flagged as suspected non-citizens, often erroneously, and were expected to prove their citizenship in order to vote. In Ohio 200,000 new voter mismatches became an issue that went to the US Supreme Court.

Indiana Poll Locations Moved Without Notice

Recently, the mayor's office in Indianapolis made 31 polling location changes and there has not been, nor will there be, an official announcement or mailing to the voters to inform them of these changes.

College Students Tricked

In Pennsylvania several anonymous fliers posted around the Drexel University claiming that on election day people with outstanding tickets and warrants will be arrested when they try to vote.

In Virginia (Radford University; Virginia Tech & more), students were threatened with loss of dependency status on parents tax returns if they vote.

Michigan Residents Faced with Foreclosure

Michigan's GOP threatened to use home foreclosure lists to prevent voters registered at those addresses from voting. Message is: if your house foreclosed, you can't vote!

Nevada Latinos Told to Vote By Phone

Nevada robo calls target Latinos, telling voters not to go to the polls, but to vote over the phone.

Voting over the phone is not possible!

McCain Wisconsin Mailer Gives False Address

A mailer was sent to select areas that included a state application for an absentee ballot, which had the wrong address printed on the application, leading some Democrats to wonder if the Arizona senator's campaign was deliberately trying to get them to apply for absentee ballots in places where they aren't eligible to vote.

NY Ballot Puts Osama in Obama's Place

This one was caught early, but over 300 absentee ballots were sent listing Obama as Barack Osama (as in Osama Bin Laden).

VA Blocks Voter Registration Drives

Veterans returning home (even ones residing at a VA facility so that their previous voter registration is no longer valid) aren't encouraged to vote like new recruits are. Many voting rights groups and advocates for veterans are trying to rectify this injustice by providing voter registration drives at VA facilities. Initially, the VA stood in the way – banning nonpartisan groups, election officials, and registration drives at its facilities. In July, Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz was literally turned away at the door of a VA facility where she wanted to show veterans how to use new voting equipment. In response, Senators Dianne Feinstein and John Kerry introduced the Veteran Voting Support Act. Barack Obama is a cosponsor of the bill, John McCain isn't.

GOP Trying to Block Eligible Alabama Prisoners

Mike Hubbard, Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party sent a letter to the Alabama commissioner of corrections opposing a voter registration drive for prisoners. The registration drive was suspended, the inmates being registered did not fall into the category Hubbard attacked per an opinion issued by the State Attorney General in 2005.

Signature Matching Issues

Not everyone has a consistent signature. Lisa Rigg is one of 500 in Florida thus far who discovered her vote was rejected because of her signature. Problem is, unlike other states, in Florida they don't contact these voters, nor do the allow their vote to count.

Straight Tickets Don't Count for President

In North Carolina "straight ticket" votes don't count for Presidential candidates
Historically this has caused a 1% "undervote" for President -- an estimated 35,800 votes in 2004. With many new voters this year, it could be higher.

Voter Caging

Letters returned as undeliverable can be compiled into "challenge lists" of unverifiable addresses and can be used to challenge voters' eligibility during early voting or on Election Day. One political party is sending out lots of Florida mail hoping for returned or forwarded mail.

McCain Suppressing His Own Voters

More than 1,000 absentee ballot applications in Greater Cincinnati have been ruled invalid because Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign printed a version of the form with an extra, unneeded box on it. The form contained an extra box to check indicating you were a registered voter--respondents who sent back the form without checking the box will not receive absentee ballots as per their request

AP Misprint in Washington State Papers

"King and Pierce counties will open polling sites on Nov. 4, Election Day, although most voters in the counties vote by absentee ballot. The other 37 counties in Washington conduct the election by mail."

This implies non-absentee mail voters can't vote in those 37 counties as there is no way to vote in person --which is not true.

Palm Beach County African American Vote Suppression

More malicious reports have been reported in Palm Beach about attempts to suppress voter turnout by threats and intimidation. People have been going through the largely African-American neighborhoods in downtown Boynton Beach, saying that anyone who has outstanding warrants, owes child support, or even has an outstanding traffic ticket would be arrested if they attempted to vote

Help Fight Voter Suppression:

If you are a writer, visit the media center.
If you have a website or are on social networks, share this badge with a link to www.votersuppression.net :

Action alert #3 -- if you are in line when the polls close, you can still vote

JonPincus — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:52:35 CST

DRAFT: BEING CONSIDERED FOR RELEASE

What region is affected? (City, County, State)	All over the country
Estimated impact	Hundreds of thousands of voters
What voters can do	Remember that
How you can help	Tell any friends and family who are standing in line ... or, go by a polling station with a long line and let people know -- and bring some water and snacks while you're at it. If you're a blogger or journalist: please run a story with this information asking your readers to help get the word out.
What's the last known status?

Republicans

Black Panthers Block Polling Place

everlastingphelps — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:55:24 CST

What region is affected? (City, County, State)	Philadelphia, PA
What voters would be affected?	All Voters
How would tactic suppress votes?	Violent Intimidation
Who is behind it?	Black Panthers
Links to media/blog coverage? (provide headline with link, writer, name of outlet/blog and publication date. try to list most recent at top)	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCeD1RcJjAg "MUST WATCH: Black Panther Vid from Amatuer Vlogger", Amanda Carpenter, townhall.com
Possible laws violated?	Assault, polling laws
Embed YouTube if available.
What's the last known status?	Police removed armed men, allowed unarmed men to loiter.
What actions can be taken?

Additional notes here:

(other notes that don't fit in the template)

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False Polling Relocation Calls in PA

everlastingphelps — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:31:11 CST

What region is affected? (City, County, State)	Lancaster County, PA
What voters would be affected?	Republican Voters
How would tactic suppress votes?	Voters falsely told that polling place has moved by robocall
Who is behind it?	Developing
Links to media/blog coverage? (provide headline with link, writer, name of outlet/blog and publication date. try to list most recent at top)	"Suppressing the Vote in Lancaster County", Brian Faughnan, Redstate.com
Possible laws violated?	Pennsylvania Election Code
Embed YouTube if available.
What's the last known status?	Lancaster County Board of Elections has been asked to investigate this activity
What actions can be taken?

Additional notes here:

From the article:

RS has received a tip that an unknown number of voters in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania are receiving phone calls informing them -- falsely -- that their voting stations have been relocated. At least 3 of the voters who received such calls determined that the information was false, and informed officials of this illegal attempt to prevent them from casting their ballots. The three specific cases that have come to our attention involve different precincts in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania -- which may be the most important one in the nation for John McCain's presidential bid. In at least one case, the voter captured the phone number from which the call originated and later called back. The male who answered confirmed that he had placed the call. According to reversemobilephones.org, the number is assigned to a resident of Philadelphia.

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Missouri: deceptive robocalls and text messages

JonPincus — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:04:09 CST

What region is affected? (City, County, State)	Statewide in Missouri
What voters would be affected?	People tricked into going to the wrong polling place or wrong time
How would tactic suppress votes?	Makes it take longer to find the right polling place
Who is behind it?
Links to media/blog coverage? (provide headline with link, writer, name of outlet/blog and publication date. try to list most recent at top)	Carnahan Responds to Reports of “Robo-calls” Containing False Information, press release from the Missouri Secretary of State's office, November 3 Carnahan warns about misleading text messages, St Louis Post-Dispatch's Political Fix
Possible laws violated?	from the press release: "Under Missouri law, knowingly providing false information about election procedures for the purpose of preventing any person from going to the polls is a class one election offense."
Embed Photo or YouTube if available.
What's the last known status?	Referred to Department of Justice
What actions can be taken?	To report prerecorded calls containing false information, or any other Election Day issues, voters may call the Election Division Hotline at 1-800-NOW-VOTE. Voters can locate their polling place, find out what type of identification to bring, and view a sample ballot at www.GoVoteMissouri.com.

Additional notes here:

Thanks to Shaun of the Twitter Robocall Tracker for reporting this!

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Kansas City: polling places have wrong voter lists

JonPincus — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:45:07 CST

What region is affected? (City, County, State)	Kansas City, Missouri
What voters would be affected?	All voters at the six precincts in the Fifth Ward where this happened, because delays are introduced
How would tactic suppress votes?	Preventing people from voting in the time they have allocated
Who is behind it?
Links to media/blog coverage? (provide headline with link, writer, name of outlet/blog and publication date. try to list most recent at top)	K.C. registration books problem resolved, Alex Walker, CNN's Political Ticker Voters face delays, lines grow as some KC polling places have wrong list of registered voters, ROBERT A. CRONKLETON and MIKE McGRAW. The Kansas City Star
Possible laws violated?
Embed YouTube if available.
What's the last known status?	Polls now have the correct information and additional pollworkers have been dispatched
What actions can be taken?	None needed at this point

Grassroots election protection initiatives

JonPincus — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:18:30 CST

Ways that you can get involved in helping safeguard our voting rights this election

CREDO Action's Immediate Response Network: a text-activist response network to deliver a text message straight to your phone
Election Defense Alliance: a national citizen movement to expose electoral fraud and establish electoral integrity; see their Election Day Action Plan for what you can do on November 4.
Election Protection (1-866-OUR-VOTE/1-888-VE-Y-VOTA): if you are an attorney, law student, or paralegal, we need your help to protect the right to vote. We're recruiting legal volunteers to staff Election Protection Hotlines across the country and work on the ground as mobile legal volunteers.
Pollworkers for Democracy: an effort to recruit, train, and network citizen pollworkers for the November 4, 2008 election and beyond. 12,507 and counting!
SourceWatch's Election Protection wiki: a non-partisan, non-profit collaboration of citizens, activists and researchers to build a one-stop-shop for reports of voter suppression and the systemic threats to election integrity
Voter Suppression Wiki: learn, report, ACT!
Wake up and save your country's Count me in! voter guide: a comprehensive and really fabulous looking guide to voting and then making sure your vote counts.

Citizen journalism, election documentation and monitoring (alphabetical order):

Black Box Voting: election watchdog group focusing on voting machine malfunctions and mischief.
CNN Voter Irregularities Map: calls from the CNN Voter Hotline (1-877-GOCNN-08)
Community Values Vote: Election news from grassroots organizations
Huffington Post's Share your voting experiences form. The best stories will be published in On The Ground 2008.
My Fair Election: Report your polling station's condition on Election Day as part of a crowd-sourced map of electoral conditions across the United States.
The New York Times Polling Place Photo Project: a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this general election.
No Voter Left Behind.net, because an election is a terrible thing to steal. Use their one-point Theft Reporting System or volunteer to help.
Our Vote Live: The official site documenting the groundbreaking voter assistance work of the Election Protection Coalition. Here, you can review in real-time reports of voter assistance calls made to 866-OUR-VOTE, Election Protection's toll-free hotline.
StopPoliticalCalls.org's Twitter Robocall Tracker: an unscientific survey of who is receiving robocalls and what those robocalls are saying.
Twitter Vote Report: share your voting experiences and help get problems fixed in real-time on or before Election Day
The UpTake: a non-partisan video citizen-journalism site, partnered with Video the Vote. Our Vote Chasers project encourages volunteers to use video camera phones (iPhone, Nokia N95, etc.) to document election abuses and stream footage live to the web in realtime.
Video the Vote: national initiative to protect voting rights by monitoring the electoral process. We organize citizen journalists—ordinary folks like you and me—to document election problems as they occur
YouTube's Video Your Vote: a non-partisan program produced in partnership with PBS, encourages American voters to document their experiences at the polls on Election Day, and is also a one-stop-shop to view exclusive videos from voter registration experts, election reform activists, and state officials, as well as video footage from the PBS archives for a historical look at voting through the years.
VoterStory '08: collect and classify voter complaints in real time across the Internet and provide a data feed of complaints that can be addressed in real time by Voter Protection groups who partner with VoterStory; a nice embeddable widget to put on a web site.
Wired's Problem Reporting page: Had a problem casting your ballot in this year's general election? We want to hear from you. Wired.com has created a map to track your issues, but we need your help to complete it. Web- and email-access.
Work the Vote LA: with incident reporting forms for the Los Angeles area.

Wisconsin action hub

Hwaisbren — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:23:33 CST

Have a Problem?Call the voter hotline!

There are 10,000 trained attorneys standing by to help with any electoral problems on or before election day.If you have problems at your polling place and need to talk to someone, call one of these voter hotlines:

1-866-OUR-VOTE(English)

1-888-VE-Y-VOTA(Spanish)

1-877-523-2792- ACLU's Voting Rights hotline

Problem not solved? There are other available resources to help!

Election Protection Wisconsin page

Election Protect wiki's Wisconsin voter's issues page

Twitter Vote Report Wisconsin feed

Want to Take Action to prevent voter suppression?

Join Credo Action's Immediate Response Network

Click here to learn how to participate in the Twitter Action Report

Record voter suppression by taking part in You Tube's Video the Vote

Taking action? Here are the Active Incidents and Action Alerts

Click here to learn about the campaign to help Russ Feingold prevent voter suppression

Use this Credo Action tool to help Sen. Russ Feingold convince WI AG Van Hollen to protect the vote rather than suppresss it!

WI Voter Suppression Documented

Click here for an instance by instance rundown, and below are recordings of what has occurred in Wisconsin:

McCain Wisconsin Mailer Gives False Address

Paid GOP Workers say they misled WI voters.

Here is the State-level Twitter Vote ReportMap of Wisconsin

Wisconsin voter suppression prevention organization list

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
The ACLU of Wisconsin
The People's Legislature
Fighting Bob LaFollette blog
Milwaukee community organizer Renee Crawford's blogCrawfordstake.com

What region is affected?	provide City, County, State info. If national, use "USA"
What voters would be affected?	who is being targeted by the tactic
How would tactic suppress votes?	explain how the suppression works. e.g. scaring young people, rejecting absentee ballots, etc.
Who is behind it?	Be as specific as possible. Name, title, affiliation, organization, party
Links to media/blog coverage? (link headline, and list byline, media outlet/blog, date of publication)	provide headline, writer/reporter name, media outlet and date of publication e.g. Voter Suppression Is A Fun Game To Some People, by John Doe, Herald Times Post, September 18, 2008
Possible laws violated?	were any state or federal laws violated? list them with link if avail
Embed YouTube if available.	good way to dramatize point. even if you don't know of specific video, use the YouTube widget to search right in the EasyEdit Toolbar. You might find something
What's the last known status?	was the tactic halted? is litigation pending?
What actions can be taken?	phone numbers to campaigns, addresses for secretary of state offices, links to action campaigns, etc