Democracy Counts!
1339 W. Pennsylvania Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Independent Citizen’s Election Audit to Be Conducted in Select Precincts in California on June 7th.
San Diego, CA/USA — June 1, 2016: Using an innovative smartphone app and professional non-partisan audit processes, Democracy Counts!, a California nonprofit organization, will conduct a pilot citizen audit of the June 7 California primary. For the first time it will be possible to verify the official results of an election in real time. If evidence of fraud is uncovered, it may be used to challenge the results in court.
The audit will be performed by volunteer auditors in select precincts in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas. Much like an exit poll, voters exiting their polling places will be approached by the auditors, but instead of being asked who they voted for inside, they will be asked to “vote again” for President in the robust, verifiable voting software developed by Democracy Counts! In the event that their data points to the possibility of illegal vote manipulation, Democracy Counts! will make such evidence available to the potentially injured candidate(s) for immediate legal challenges.
America’s patchwork of weak and vulnerable vote-counting machinery, including our notorious paperless touch-screen systems, have inspired widespread belief that elections in America are being rigged. The lack of verifiability contributes directly to this belief, which undermines confidence in America’s voting processes in general. Democracy Counts! audits are designed to provide the direct evidence required to precipitate thorough investigations, which should either restore confidence or result in corrections.
Founder Daniel Wolf is a Fulbright Scholar and entrepreneur who wrote one of the world’s first manuals on election observation while a student at Harvard Law School. “Had such an audit been available sixteen years ago,” he noted, “the country might have been spared the ‘hanging chad’ agony in Florida in ‘00 that led to the controversial involvement of the Supreme Court. Had it been available in ’04 we might have been spared the deepening cynicism provoked by allegations of fraud in Ohio.”
Without independent verification of official results, the truth is unknowable. The mission of Democracy Counts! is to make the truth knowable, and to restore confidence in American elections. This small-scale pilot will test the audit processes and software in advance of its nationwide launch for the November presidential election.
The significance of the audit system is clear: It will provide the American people an unprecedented opportunity to put the entire American election system under scrutiny, will provide them a way to take effective action that they have never before possessed, and may result in challenges to hundreds of elections around the country—even up to and including the Presidential race.
The DemocracyCounts! Citizens Audit is being conducted with the support of The Institute for American Democracy and Election Integrity (www.TrustVote.org), the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism (www.colsfreepress@gmail.com), and Election Justice USA (www.ElectionJusticeUsa.org).
Those wishing to learn more about how Democracy Counts! audit system works, or how to volunteer their energy in the primary or in November, may visit the website of Democracy Counts! (www.DemocracyCounts.org). People wishing to make donations to Democracy Counts! are invited to go to the Donate page on the website of the Institute of Democracy and Election Integrity (www.trustvote.org).
Elections are momentous events in a nation’s civic and political life. In… countries around the world, [people]… make their voices heard through the extraordinary power of the vote. [It is essential] that elected officials are accountable to citizens.
Neil Levine, Director Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights & Governance
Lead media contact:
Lori Grace
The Institute for American Democracy and Election Integrity
Cell (415) 847-5950; Office (415) 435-2583
Email: info@trustvote.org
For questions regarding exit polling and election integrity:
Robert Fitrakis
Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism
Office 614.374-2380
Email: robertfitrakis@gmail.com
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