NYCPHP Meetup

[Bill Patterson]

Here is an announcement I received, through the Philadelphia Linux Users 
Group, indirectly from Moveon.org.  This announcement may be of interest 
to NYPHPers.  --Bill



The non-partisan Verified Voting Foundation is working with other
voter protection groups to make sure every vote is counted,
focusing its efforts on the new electronic voting terminals we're
all concerned about.

Their program is called TechWatch, and it will help reduce the risk
that votes will be lost or miscounted by these machines and other
technology.

Please volunteer for TechWatch at:

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/techwatch/

Geeks who sign up with TechWatch will be able to help out both 
beforehand and on Election Day.  You'll find out what kind of machines 
are being used, how they are tested, and how to tell if they are being 
used properly.  The responsibilities include:

* Observing and documenting the Logic & Accuracy testing of
voting technology by election officials before Election Day;

* Monitoring the polls on Election Day (assigned to a single
polling place or central election office);

* Reporting incidents on Election Day (dispatched to particular  polling 
places when trouble is indicated).

With your technical expertise, you can help document election
problems for follow-on litigation and policymaking in a way
that most poll watchers cannot.

More than 500 technologists have already volunteered, but it will take 
thousands of TechWatch Geeks to cover priority states and key counties, 
starting with the Florida primary on August 31 and continuing through to 
the November 2 general election.

Also, if you like to code, Verified Voting Foundation has "an urgent 
need for php programmers who want to assist with development of an 
open-source Election Incident Reporting system from now until 
September."  You can also sign up to help with this project at
their web page.

Please sign up today, at:

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/techwatch/

Thank you.

Sincerely,

- Peter Schurman
MoveOn.org
August 3, 2004

P.S.: Paul Krugman of the New York Times wrote an important
column on this issue on July 27:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/27/opinion/27krug.html