FROM BEV HARRIS
We have received $300 so far today in the fund raising effort to raise a total of $8000 to underwrite the citizen "Dream Teams" in New Hampshire to watchdog the recount. Thank you so very much to each person who is helping to organize this effort.
Black Box Voting helped put together a strong, experienced team of citizens last week. Like you, these are people with jobs, responsibilities, who are almost all doing this on a volunteer basis. I have selected unique people who I've had the opportunity to assess over the past four years, who have specific front lines experience monitoring elections.
Last week, "Dream Team I" began tracking chain of custody in New Hampshire. This team included Paddy Shaffer (Ohio Election Justice Campaign), Melisa Urda (Illinois Ballot Integrity Project), Susan Pynchon (Florida Fair Elections Coalition) and Sally Castleman (Election Defense Alliance).
Sally's still here; the others have had to return home. I am assembling "Dream Team II" right now. I have commitments from Kathy Greenwell (Bullitt County, Kentucky citizen and the trigger for the "Moonshine Elections" series), Vickie Karp (Vote Rescue, Austin Texas), and now that we've had help with the fund raising on this, I will issue invitations to three more individuals with years of front lines expertise.
We are fund raising for cost of air fare, typically slightly more expensive one-way tickets since scheduling is dictated in part by what we find; motel, rental car and for those members of the "Dream Teams" who don't already have it, digital video cameras, which will be retained by Black Box Voting after this is over for future citizen Dream Team projects.
I am setting a fund raising goal of $8,000 to cover the Dream Team II and help defray some of the Dream Team I costs for this project. As those who have been following our work for the past four years know: We deliver.
We will issue a daily report for funds raised.
Black Box Voting is a tiny organization, with basically me and a bookkeeper, and the network we have built throughout the country, and our volunteer board members. We are primarily focused on watchdog and documentation efforts.
Reasonable expectations: We don't have lawyers on staff and don't handle litigation efforts. We are not and will not be involved in any campaign efforts and our emphasis is not on overturning elections, but rather, on developing evidence as to the validity of the election. Others can and do use the information we develop, which we post publicly here and in our document archive.
Our "clients" are the voters themselves, not the candidates or their campaigns.
We do not focus on legislative efforts or organizing demonstrations.
What the citizen Dream Teams will do is in the area of investigating, evaluating, and tracking election procedures and chain of custody. This involves capturing video, photos, and requesting public records, as well as doing some background checking on individuals with access to the votes, and direct observation of processes related to the election. We spend most of our time in the field and we visit many kinds of places, depending on what we are focusing in on.
We will report daily (except in the situations, which do happen, when we are in the field and even our wireless cards won't pick up a signal).
You will be able to see our reports in the "Investigations" section of these forums, where you can also comment and ask questions. Do remember that our primary focus for this project is field work, so we will be online only for brief time spans.
If funding is heavier than expected:
Excess funds will go into our general operating fund and, if sufficient, into assembling citizen "Dream Teams" for the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primaries. We report our financial information publicly each year on our 990 and for this project, daily right here. You may view our most recent 990 financial information on our donations page,
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html - scroll to the bottom for the link to the pdf file.
I thank you for your patriotism and your commitment to elections with vote counting we can actually see, and a chain of custody that is public and transparent.
Donations can be provided by visiting our donations page:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
or by mailing check to:
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057
(Please allow 10 days to receive, log, enter and report donations sent by mail.)
Bev Harris
Founder - Black Box Voting
