[Voterescue] ACTION ALERT: Monitoring the Iowa Caucus from Home!

[Vickie Karp]

Greetings and Happy New Year!  We hope you had fantastic holidays! This
week begins the critical Presidential election cycle of state
caucuses:  This Thursday, January 3rd, the Iowa Caucus will be held and
the entire nation will be watching the results to determine which
candidates for President have the best chance of gaining support in
future primaries and of garnering future campaign contributions.  The New
Hampshire primary will be held on January 8th.  Our friend Bev Harris at
Black Box Voting has issued a security alert regarding the Iowa caucus
which can be viewed in its entirety on her website,
www.blackboxvoting.org.  Though voting machines are not being used in the
caucus - they will be using hand-counted paper ballots- the
Republicans' procedures as disclosed so far to Bev and other citizens
making inquiries are "sketchy" at best.  They are not committing to
posting their totals at the precinct level, something the Democrats have
stated they will do.  Without this critical step, there is no way to
truly be able to track the validity of the final caucus results. We
recommend that anyone in Iowa who wants to monitor the caucus there
immediately check in at the Black Box Voting website and read up on Bev's
suggestions for videotaping and tracking totals and events at each
precinct that can be covered, then report back in to BBV later.  If you
know someone in Iowa, or someone who is going there for the caucus,
please forward this message to them. She also recommends that we all
contact both the Iowa Republican Party and the Iowa Secretary of State to
tell them we expect to see those precinct results published at the SAME
time they announce the statewide total. Iowa Republican Party: 
515/292-8105Iowa Secretary of State:  515-281-0145; 515-281-7142 (FAX);
email:  sos at sos.state.ia.us For those of you who would like to be
involved in helping monitor results from home, there is an online effort
organized through the website www.libertybroadcastnetwork.com .  There
you can sign up to be a specific county's contact person for election
monitors "on the ground" in Iowa on Thursday night who will contact
volunteers manning their computers at home, to deliver by phone or e-mail
the Republican totals from those county's precincts if they can get them;
you as the remote volunteer will then post those precinct totals on the
website for later validation with the "official" totals.  This effort has
been organized by Jim Condit Jr., Art Groveman, Walter Reddy and others,
some of whom are also plaintiffs on "We the People" 's 50 state "Clean
Election Lawsuit".  It is designed to cover the Republican side only. 
This likely is because the Democrats have committed to a more transparent
process including posting totals at the precinct level. This effort also
includes the ability to download affidavits for use in, it is recommended
on the site, New Hampshire and then future primary states which I believe
will be added later, where electronic voting machines will be used and
the "official" totals will be even more suspect.   For Ron Paul
supporters, many of you know that VoteRescuer Mitchell Stein has created
an affidavit campaign for the primaries specific to those who want to
monitor the votes for Ron Paul.  You can reach him at the e-mail
address:  mitchell at ronpaulvotecount.com. I do not know if he has created
a campaign yet for Iowa, but he has for the upcoming Texas and Florida
primaries, and perhaps by now, some of the other states.  See: 
http://www.ronpaulvotecount.com Links to the Florida and Texas efforts
for this campaign are below: Current Florida Web Page- The address of the
Florida page is http://www.RonPaulVoteCount.com/florida.html

Current Texas Web Page-The address of the Texas page is
http://www.RonPaulVoteCount.com/texas.html

The Presidential candidate (s)election process begins THIS WEEK!  Long
before November, it will be all over.

NOW is the time to be vigilant!  NOW is the time to get involved and
monitor elections! 

We will begin our own VoteRescue training SOON for Exit Polls to occur
during the Texas primary election.  Be on the lookout for meeting and
training announcements!

Vickie
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