Intellectual Property Law

Monitor Election Problems Nationwide with OurVoteLive.org

By rebecca

San Francisco - Reporters, bloggers, and voters across the country can monitor problems at the polls on Election Day on OurVoteLive.org, a project built and hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of Election Protection, the nation's largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition, and its toll-free voter-assistance hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE.

OurVoteLive.org collects and analyzes reports from calls to the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline, which is staffed by hundreds of volunteers across the country. Tested during the presidential primaries, the site is already documenting over a thousand examples per day of voters needing information or reporting problems such as registration and identification issues, difficulties with voting machines, and polling place accessibility issues. Over 200,000 calls are expected to come into the hotline and be documented on OurVoteLive.org through Election Day.

"Improved transparency in all aspects of the electoral process is critical to ensuring accurate results as well as diagnosing systemic problems and helping voters," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "OurVoteLive.org is helping the Election Protection Coalition make that possible."

In addition to call incident data, OurVoteLive.org also features maps, nationwide trend information, and an active election issues blog that will highlight important election incidents as they develop.

"OurVoteLive.org will allow us to help more voters more effectively," said Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which leads Election Protection. "We -- along with election officials and the media -- will be able track trends and identify problem areas quickly so that we can remove any barriers that voters face as they cast their ballots."

Election Protection has more than 100 partners at the national, state and local level and is providing live voter protection services now through Election Day across all 50 states. On November 4, Election Protection will mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers, including 10,000 legal volunteers to monitor polling places, educate voters, facilitate a dialogue with local and state officials, provide legal support to poll monitors, and answer the 1-866-OUR-VOTE voter services hotline -- a monumental undertaking designed to ensure smooth voting in November.

On Election Day, reporters who have questions about OurVoteLive.org or particular incidents reported on the site should contact Nell McGarity via email at press@ourvotelive.com or by phone at 202-262-0721.

Contact:

Matt Zimmerman
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
mattz@eff.org

Full post as published by Electronic Freedom Foundation - Deep Links on October 27, 2008 (boomark / email).