Here's a pretty easy action to take for the sake of our elections. 
Let me know what you think. Feedback definitely welcome. 
 
 
Action Alert Made Easy: A Really Important Homework Assignment 
By Joan Brunwasser, Voting Integrity Editor, OpEdNews April 18, 2007 
 
I am better at writing than doing, talking than doing, virtually 
anything than actually doing. I'm probably not the only one, but it 
sometimes makes a mockery of my so-called activism. 
 
My heart is in the right place, but I was born in the wrong 
generation. High-tech is just not me. If I had been around in the 
early twentieth century, I would have been a hold-out for the horse 
and buggy, flustered by those whippersnappers flashing by in their 
horseless wonders. Paper and pencil are my preferred means of 
communication, which is why you'll never catch me with a PDA. My sore 
rear end is a result of my work at OpEdNews, not from surfing the web. 
 
One of the perks of my role as voting integrity editor is that I've 
been able to connect and establish a rapport with many of the people 
who have been driving the election integrity movement over the last 
few years. I do my best to be fair, and I have no particular axe to 
grind, so people are pretty patient about my technological 
shortcomings. OpEdNews does its best to include as many of the 
activists and their work as possible, and we've done a pretty good job 
at it. 
 
Brad Friedman is one of my cyber-buddies. I have gotten a great 
education on election integrity from BradBlog.com. His daily exposés 
are, for me, what I imagine a cup of coffee is for caffeine addicts. I 
need my fix to feel like I'm on top of things. We have corresponded 
for quite a while, and even once had a freewheeling phone conversation 
with the potential of turning into an interview (except for the fact 
that I don't know how to do interviews and my computer ate the file of 
the transcript that he sent me). I am grateful to him for teaching me 
how to insert links so that my articles would look more professional, 
even though I wasn't a particularly quick study. 
 
I often feel like a cheerleader (finally, sort of fulfilling my 
aspirations as a junior high schooler). People do great work, and I 
commend them for it by posting their articles at OpEdNews to give them 
more exposure. But, in terms of being able to follow exactly what 
they're saying or actually follow through on their calls to action, 
there's the rub. And I don't think I'm the only one, either. 
 
I've had an idea for a while about developing a prototype so that 
people could print it up and have it in front of them when they made 
calls to their secretaries of state to enlist their support for 
election reform. It's a project that is on my friend Nancy (of the 
Election Defense Allliance) Tobi's list, but the truth is that she is 
so busy with everything else she's doing, she hasn't been able to get 
to it yet. Nancy believes that our congressional representatives need 
to hear from their constituents, and that we all need to begin 
identifying which ones are on our side and which are not. We need to 
be strategic in order to win. (Stay tuned for your next assignment. 
Our template for contacting your congressional reps is in the works.) 
 
In the meantime, there I am, full of good intentions. But, have I 
picked up the phone and called my own Secretary of State, Jesse White? 
No, I shamefacedly admit, I have not. And if I haven't, I venture to 
guess that most people haven't either. 
 
Why haven't I? I'm uncomfortable doing it because I don't feel that I 
really get all the issues yet, which makes me tentative. That's why I 
thought of this how-to template that would lay out the issues in a 
very straightforward, easy-to-follow format. That way, I could just 
clutch it in front of me when I made my phone call. 
 
I wrote Brad about his article on the latest electronic voting 
machine/EAC scandal – 
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkpg=http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4416&linkid=33873 
"Exclusive: ES&S Touch-Screen Voting Systems Found Vulnerable to 
'Serious' Viral Vote-Flipping Attack; US Election Assistance 
Commission Refuses to Issue Warning" – which reads in part, 
 
The vulnerability is said to allow for a single malicious user to 
introduce a virus into the system which "could potentially steal all 
the votes in that county, without being detected," according to a 
noted computer scientist and voting system expert who has reviewed the 
findings. 
 
I commended Brad (and co-author Michael Richardson) on the post. This 
is what he wrote me when I asked what we can be doing. 
 
[Make] noise, noise, noise. Any way possible. You're media! Call the 
EAC [Election Assistance Commission]and see if they have any 
explanation for that article! 
 
When they give you the same old song and dance, report it again! Call 
a couple of the SoS offices at the affected states and ask them if 
they know their systems were found to have been vulnerable to viruses 
from a single person that could flip an entire county's election 
undetectedly, and ask them why they didn't know about it, since the 
EAC did, and if they think the EAC should have let them know. Etc. 
 
Advance the story, report it. We could use ya, teammate! 
 
So, here's what I did. I went online and got the telephone number of 
the EAC, (toll-free 866-747-1471) and the name of the director 
(Jeannie Layson). 
 
Then, I went online again and got the link for the complete roster of 
all 50 states (http://www.nass.org/sos/soscontact.html) with the 
Secretaries of States and their phone and fax numbers, snail mail and 
e-mail addresses. In short, more information than you or I will ever 
need. 
 
Then, I printed up a copy of the original article from April 16th by 
Michael Richardson and Brad Friedman 
(http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4396#more-4396) as well as an update that 
lists the 16 states affected by this newly discovered "virus 
vulnerability" (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4416). So now I'm all set 
with everything I need. 
 
Unfortunately, it's too late today to call. But, tomorrow, I will take 
all of my pieces and: 
 
1. Call the EAC and ask them about the article and why they take no 
responsibility for contacting and warning the states affected by this 
serious breach. (Keep in mind that this incompetent group is about to 
be made a permanent fixture on the political landscape if HR 811 is 
passed.) I will note any comment, or refusal to comment. 
 
2. Then, I will call as many of the 16 secretaries of state as I can 
to ask what they think about this article, which I will offer to fax 
or email to them. (I'm assuming that after one or two calls, it will 
be pretty easy and the words will just roll off my tongue.) 
 
3. Then, I will contact my own secretary of state (thankfully, 
Illinois is not on this list, but we have plenty of our own problems) 
and discuss how we can work together on spreading the word about the 
problems with the EAC, electronic voting and HR 811. 
 
4. Then, I will write another OpEdNews piece and tell you how it went! 
 
Hopefully, you will all take heart from this boiled-down, step-by-step 
template and be empowered to follow the steps yourselves. Let me know 
where you got and what they said. Trust me when I say that this kind 
of approach can make a difference. In the meantime, we will be 
creating dozens – hopefully even hundreds or thousands – of citizen 
journalists who are stepping forward to do the job so disastrously 
abandoned by the mainstream corporate press. 
 
I almost forgot the last step: 
 
5. I will take my shoes off, put my feet up, and heave a big sigh of 
relief. Thanks, Brad, for making me do this. I feel a lot better now. 
And it wasn't even as hard as I thought it would be. 
 
Originally posted at OpEdNews: 
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_joan_bru_070418_action_alert_made_ea.htm