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USA Election Monitor: Of the People, By the People

Nathaniel Manning
Nov 1, 2016

CALL TO ACTION: Go to usaelectionmonitor.com to learn how to report on the election or to help with verification of reports

WHY WE ARE DOING THIS

There has been unprecedented conversation in the 2016 USA election about issues with the voting process, and even some potential worry of violence on election day. While, there is no evidence of voter fraud in America there are instances of voter suppression and voting issues on election day. As citizens, let’s raise our voices and help to report any issues on election day as well as celebrate all those who run a tight ship and bring trust to the underpinning of our democratic systems.

This is a nonpartisan citizen-led election monitoring project utilizing the Ushahidi crowdsourcing software to ensure transparency. It is being championed by Ushahidi, who has helped run citizen-led election monitoring in countries around the world.

Let us emphasize that there are many other election monitoring entities working with approved trained monitors on election day.  This includes all state legislatures, both campaigns, the DNC and RNC, as well as non-partisan third party monitors. To learn more about the process, read the National Conference of State Legislatures page on policies for election observers in the USA.

This project is not meant to replace or compete with any of these existing efforts, only to complement them. This is a means for regular citizens who are going to vote, to report on any issues they come across, anything they witness, as well as to say that everything went great!

HOW IT WORKS

Citizens can report via Website, SMS, Twitter, or Email. Vetted volunteers will then verify those reports and publish them to this site, where they can be viewed on a map and timeline.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

  1. REPORT ON THE ELECTION

Will you be at a voting booth on Nov 8th? If so, you can report to this election monitoring tool via:

Webform at: usaelectionmonitor.ushahidi.io

SMS: (302) 268-9516

Twitter: #usaelectionmonitor

Email: Usaelectionmonitor@gmail.com

  1. BECOME A VETTED VERIFIER AND HELP VERIFY REPORTS ON ELECTION DAY

Join the team and help verify all incoming reports. We will give you a training on how to run the tool, and set you up to help triage and verify any incoming reports on Nov 8th.

  1. GET OUT THE WORD!

Help us spread the word to all citizens about how to report on election day!

Suggested posts for social media:

All citizens can submit reports about polling locations and voting experiences at http://bit.ly/USAElectionMonitor #USAelectionmonitor

Are you witnessing or experiencing voter suppression at your polling location? Raise your voice and report it here http://bit.ly/USAElectionMonitor #USAelectionmonitor

Many thanks for helping contribute to transparency in our electoral processes.

The Ushahidi Team