Activists Marshal Poll Watchers
Thu Oct 28, 6:17 PM ET
These groups have mobilized the largest number of U.S. poll watchers in recent history:
_ Election Protection Coalition: Founded by People for the American Way Foundation, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the coalition has registered nearly 15,000 monitors, focusing on 3,500 predominantly black and Latino precincts in 17 states. http://www.electionprotectionvolunteer.org
_ Common Cause and Votewatch: Volunteers have trained hundreds of grassroots teams to interview voters leaving the polls. Some have permission to sit inside polling stations. The nonpartisan groups are training "mystery voters," who report details of their voting experience, as well as "closing voters," who will call in each precinct's final number of votes cast and submit digital photographs of the polling places being closed. http://www.commoncause.org and http://www.votewatch.us/
_ Global Exchange: The San Francisco-based human rights group is bringing election officials and former lawmakers from 15 countries to observe the U.S. elections. http://www.globalexchange.org/
_ Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe: The Bush administration invited this group, which represents 55 nations and specializes in conflict prevention and crisis management. It will have about 100 observers in swing states. http://www.osce.org
_ Verified Voting Foundation: Started by Stanford University computer science professor David Dill, the group has registered 1,300 technology professionals to monitor touch-screen voting in Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, California and other states. Academics worry that hackers, software bugs or power outages could alter or delete the electronic ballots being cast by as many as 50 million Americans. http://verifiedvoting.org