Who’s Who in the Voting Reform Movement

This page is under construction. Please add your contact info below, as a response. Inclusion on this page is not an endorsement of the organization, or individual. It is meant solely for building a network of resources on the issue of voting integrity and election integrity.

I just found this site again… Vote Trust USA. Co-founded by Andy Stephenson, there’s several good people working on this organization. They also have a great state-by-state list of voting integrity groups, so if you like these links pages, then check their’s out.

Lately, Brad Friedman, has been doing great writing and heavy lifting over at the Brad Blog.

Paul Lehto is a election law scholar working on voting integrity with Roll Call for Democracy, http://www.rollcall4democracy.com, he writes really good break downs on why politicians are not  capable of signing properitary service contracts for computer software to count our votes. In a nutshell, Paul has written one of the best, if not the best, resolution on voting integrity.

This article, http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/2943, does a great job giving an overview of the “Election Integrity” movement at large. It is recommended for those citizens or activists looking for a “current reality” overview of the voting integrity movement. One issue with the article as a whole is the use of the term paper trail, which has been written about extensively before, for now, suffice it to say the term “paper ballots” is preferred to the use of the term”paper trails” because the difference in terminology presents a legal loophole that is inadvisable.

Bev Harris, is the Grandmother turned activist at the helm of Blackbox Voting. ORG is also the star of the show in HBO’s movie, “Hacking Democracy”. Her book “Blackbox Voting” is an essential read for anyone looking to understand the modern day voting machine debacle. It’s still on the website, for free, to anyone wanting to read the long list of problems she and others have uncovered over the years.

Avi Rubin, is a Computer Science professor from John Hopkins University, and is one of the individuals who Bev Harris initially contacted with the Diebold Voting Machine Source Code. He has done a lot of good work publicizing the problems inherent in Touch Screen Voting systems, and outing Diebold in particular. His ongoing blog is a good source of voting machine information and is online here. He also wrote a paper on the Diebold Source code which got the Diebold bad-press party kicked into high gear, and his new book is called Brave New Ballot.

Many college kids around the country, and the Indymedia network hosted the Diebold memos and info, while Diebold attempted to harrass everyone with “Cease and Desist” orders for posting what Diebold claimed, as I recall, were “not real memos” but “Diebold property” none-the-less. It was congressmen Dennis Kucinich who finally silenced Diebold on this tactic. I am still looking to find a comprehensive account of this history.

Lynn Landes is a investigative journalist who has been working on voting issues for more than 20 years. She was ahead of her time in many ways, and was working to expose computer voting problems years before they hit the national media. She publishes articles regularly, and they can usually be found on her website. The artilce she writes about doing away with the secret ballot is a must read for everyone interested in this subject, as it challenges the very idea of the secret ballot, and calls for its abolition. Maybe a radical view, but well worth the read. I’ll look for a link…

Verified Voting, and David Dill from Stanford University
David Dill is a professor at Standford University, and he runs Verified Voting.

Andy Stephenson
Andy Stephenson, worked as a researcher with Bev Harris on the first book on E-Voting and Diebold. He subsequently ran for Secretary of State as a Democrat in the State of Washington, bringing much needed focus on this political position around the country. His campaign did pioneering work breaking news nationally, and locally. He was also a great friend. You can see him in HBO’s documentary “Hacking Democracy”.

Velvet Revolution. Velvet Revolution is a grassroots organizing force. Wanna get hands on… check them out. Velvet Revolution is a great resource. Highest recommendation.

True Voters Maryland. This group is great. Sign-up for their email discussion list to really stay up to date on all the current issues. I lurk on their list constantly because they always have very knowledgable input from list members. If you want to model your local organization off of a well run state organization, look no further.

Greg Palast, http://www.gregpalast.com, is an American Journalist working in Britain, reporting on election fraud. Really broke ground in 2000 and Florida’s now infamous voter purge lists.

The BBC, has consistently covered voting fraud and electioneering issues. I will track down their best articles as I have time and link them here.

Vanity Fair printed the best article to date at the time on the voting machine story. I don’t know if it exists online.

HBO has now released “Hacking Democracy” one of the best documentaries to date about voting machine “glitches”.

Scoop News, consistently breaks news about e-Voting, and US election fraud.

The Democratic Underground, was one of the first blog style websites to really bring together voting activists on the e-Voting topic. The website is still a great resource for anyone looking to understand the issues into the minute details.

Blackbox Voting. COM, is the publisher of the first book on e-Voting and Diebold. The website itself is a good source of voting news and info. It appears that he has jumped on the Vote-by Mail bandwagon, will wait and see…

Reed College. Reed College has a department dedicated to working on election issues. Their report on Absentee Ballots was fairly inconclusive, and outright dismissive of concerns about security. I’ll track that down too, and add a link.

The Ohio College. Moritz @ Law is a great resource. Recommended resource for information you might not find elsewhere. For legal issues most activists would otherwise never think about.

ElectionOnline.org The Election Reform Information Project. A good source of information, their “Election Preview 2006” has generated a lot of press and buzz over the 2006 swing states. An important organization, and an important document to read.

Bob Fritrakis, Harvey Wasserman, wrote the book on Ohio 2004. They are both really knowledgeable. Their book, which is the size of a phone book, is a huge encylcopedia of first hand accounts, government memos, and fact after documented fact. If you still need convinced on Ohio, read their book. It’s required reading for anyone who wants to understand the current state of affairs in vote fraud and electioneering. Incidentally, Harvery Wasserman was a huge influence on me when I met him while I was in high school. His efforts on the “No Nukes” campaign, and his book on the subject of nuclear power and waste, was a real inspiration. I’m glad he’s taken up the cause of voting integrity with Mr. Fritrakis.

The Green Party’s David Cobb. Mr. Cobb was a candidate for President in Ohio in 2004. Because of this he had legal “standing” to bring a challenge in court to the outcome of the Presidential election. He’s involved in many aspects of the voting rights movement, and several videos from is website are worth viewing…

The Libertarian Party’s Involvement. I am still researching. The party has been helpful locally, and I need to know more about some of their more interesting lawsuits. The Presidential Candidate was involved at the time with Cobb in Ohio, as I recall.

MoveOn.org. MoveOn.org, sends out a massive emails regularly. They are sort of the biggest forward list on the planet for lefty political causes. They are lefty and very partisan. I haven’t much appreciated their lack of knowledge on the subject of voting integrity so far.

TrueMajority. True Majority works on the paper ballot issues and if I recall correctly created the “computer ate my vote” campaign originally. They are part of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream empire.

The Illinois Ballot Integrity Project

Washblog.com, http://www.washblog.com, is the source for work by Jason Aaron Osgood, a new voice in the movement worthy of reading regularly. His posts are under the handle “Zappini”. Washington State specific, but useful to anyone trying to keep Vote-by Mail out of their state.

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Gentry Lange
Director, The No Vote By Mail Project
gentry (at) gentry lange. c o mGentry Lange is a political activist from Washington State. The No Vote-By Mail Project regularly reports news about absentee voting, and other voting integrity issues online at, http://www.novbm.com, and provides resources for those opposing the increased use of “No-excuse” absentee voting. His website is a response to the lack of organized opposition and resources on the web for those working to oppose vote by mail, absentee voting, and anything else that sounds like getting rid of voting booths and trusting the post office with Democracy.