What to Do

We’re about a month and a half out from the presidential election—the election that is most accurately seen as the decision about the direction of our country, toward European socialism, or back toward our beloved constitutional republic. Not coincidentally, that decision is also one between continued economic malaise caused by government interference and recovery that naturally happens when government gets out of the way.

True the Vote info card

Those of us who care see how important this moment is. We want to know we’ve done everything we can and should do. One thing we can do is ensure free and fair elections. With choices so portentous, we need to be able to walk away from the election with the certainty that the election accurately reflects the will of the people.

How do you make sure the elections are free and fair? You watch. Just as homes with active alarm monitoring are less likely to be burglarized than easy targets, watched polls are less likely to be compromised.

John Fund has written a book called Who’s Counting: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk (interview here). He makes the comparison with shoplifting; if you have the cameras up, and the signs that shoplifting will be prosecuted leads to less theft.

We have data now to show this effect. Back in 2010, the True the Vote project sent out about 1000 trained volunteers to watch the polls (I was one of them) in Harris County, where Houston is located. Poll watchers can’t interfere or direct; they can only observe, record, and report. After that election there were more than 800 incident reports of problems at the polls. They fit under various categories of violation. The 2011 election was smaller, but the comparison shows that training and watching do indeed make a difference.

Incident Description	# in 2010 election	# in 2011 election
Illegal assistance	246	4
Improper poll procedure	124	15
Intimidation	114	19
Improper voter qualification	70	22
Unauthorized personnel	54	7
Electioneering	43	10

County training of officials in 2011 included an understanding of poll watchers, and an expectation that they would be there observing. Many violations the previous year were the result of improper training; poll workers didn’t know they were doing anything wrong, because no one had ever held them accountable before.

Harris County was the guinea pig for poll watcher training. True the Vote has spread that training nationwide, and done a pretty amazing job of tailoring the training for the laws in each individual state.

There are about 1000 polling locations on election day in Harris County. Some are bigger and more in need of watching than others, but each place needs at least two, so separate accounts can corroborate each other. So this single county needs about 3000 poll workers, three times the volunteers in 2010. To cover the whole country, we need a million.

I would assume this is impossible, but True the Vote did “impossible” things in verifying the recall in Wisconsin, and has done amazing things in a short time since it started with a handful of people back in 2009.

So, if you want to make a difference in this important election, consider volunteering as a poll watcher. You can get training online, in about an hour or so. And you’ll be put in contact with a team in your area so you can get an assignment and authorization.

Here’s what you need to do. Go to TruetheVote.org and register. You’ll get a password, and then you can sign in at the portal login any time and click on the training courses you need. Whatever state you’re in, your training will pertain to your specific place.

Basic poll watcher training is what we’re mainly talking about here, but there are also various training courses for checking the voter rolls, which is also essential. Many counties across the nation have more voter registration than 100% of the population. Pugh research says there are 1.8 million registered dead people. The problem is that a sizable number of these non-breathing people continue to vote. When you have a close election, like we had in Florida in 2000, that makes a difference.

As John Fund says, “You no longer need to win with a margin of victory; you need to win with a margin of litigation.”  Al Franken got elected to the US Senate during an election when 1100 felons illegally voted. Dozens have already been convicted of voting illegally in that election. It’s likely, when all is said and done, that the number convicted of voting illegally will exceed the margin of victory. If Al Franken hadn’t been placed as the 60^th democrat senator, Obamacare would not have passed. Accurate counting matters—to all of us.

If indeed our country is a majority of people who disdain the Constitution, if people really do want to give up their freedoms in exchange for government serfdom, then we are so far gone that an election will do no more than reveal our too-far-gone state.

But I do not believe that is where we are. I believe we are in dire circumstances, where far too many people lack information and understanding, but a sizable majority favors freedom and constitutional protection from government overreach. I believe people still want all the opportunity that goes with liberty. But the lack of education and understanding means that many people are easily fooled.

King Street Patriots, the tea party type group behind the True the Vote project, has faced an inordinate amount of litigation and harassment, including bold-faced lies and accusations of racism. (This piece is a pretty good example; read it with the question in mind, “Do these people really care about free and fair elections? Can I trust what they say about True the Vote volunteers, who are my neighbors and friends?) I have been to many of their meetings; the goal truly is free and fair elections. No racist, classist, or even party-affiliated derogatory comments are tolerated in this non-partisan effort, let alone preached there. (I’ve written about True the Vote and poll watching several times: here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Here’s what I’d like to see. First, sign up yourself to be a poll watcher. Then, if you have friends who are democrats out of tradition, unaware that their party has been co-opted by radical leftists—if these people fear poll watching because it might disenfranchise someone, get them to take the training and become a poll watcher themselves. They’ll see several things: wanting free and fair elections is not about hate; it’s about loving our country. It’s not about racism or disenfranchising legal voters; it’s about avoiding cancelling out legal votes by ignoring illegal voting. It’s about becoming aware of and following the laws, not in any way skirting them for political purposes.

If someone is worried someone else might be against free and fair elections, let them act to see that free and fair elections take place. Let them witness. The more witnesses we have, the more certain we will be that our elections reflect the will of the people.