Current Action Items

We conduct various Action Items with our volunteers to help #ProtectOurVotes. We are committed to examining election equipment weaknesses and holding county and state election officials responsible for the accuracy of their voting equipment, absentee and provisional voting processes and election results. We also support election protection and security legislation on state and federal levels.

We provide a structure for election integrity activists to take action NOW, with a limited time commitment. Many of our volunteers participate in some or all of our action items. You can decide how active you want to be. We are excited to have you participate in our 2020 action Items (see below). 

For many action items, we provide activists kits, including:

  • A defined goal
  • Methods (emails, calls, postcards)
  • Link to our Action Item Kit
  • Proposed graphics
  • Proposed Script
  • Email address lists
  • Label content to print at home

We have identified 5 Action Items for 2020. These are:

–Photo Finish: Action Item to have volunteers make photos of precinct poll tapes (which are the voting results for each candidate, by precinct, printed at the end of Election Day) and upload them to our website. Our volunteer group compares the uploaded poll tapes with reported county and state counts. Any inconsistencies are published on our website and often sent to the states. We plan on working with other organizations on this project as soon as our Pilot Phase is complete (Target: September 2020). If your organization is interested in a collaboration, please contact: info@protectourvotes.com

–State Election and Media Laws website resource page: we have received permission from the Digital Media Project to update and maintain their election and media law resources. We have an ongoing project to update our online resource center of state election and media laws and statutes as they relate to our Photo Finish Project and the photographing of precinct poll tapes after voting closes on election days. We are also tracking the state and county policies as they may differ from state election law.

–Absentee Ballot Return Rate Analyses: Examining absentee ballots sent out to voters versus the numbers sent back to counties, by voters, for counting in the election (return rates). Ask counties for explanations of low return numbers. (Ongoing Project, link will be posted here soon).

–Citizen Recounts: County-wide FOIA copies of election ballots or voting machine cast vote records and ballot scanning image records for public recounts and citizen audits. (Ongoing Project, link posted soon).

–Voter and Ballot Audits: Verify the Vote by surveying voters and selected precincts’ ballots (through FOIA) to establish whether or not the votes have been manipulated in certain precincts or counties. Our voter and ballot surveys are compared to official results for any discrepancies. These actions are usually triggered by discrepancies we have found between the precinct poll tape election totals and the county reported precinct-level results. We conducted several of these actions in 2019 and will continue in 2020.

Our flexible structure allows you to donate time or money (look for our GoFundMe campaigns to support individual Action Items). Some of our action items are no cost and some require the purchase of state voter registration databases (to look for voter registration purges) or absentee voter lists (to monitor return rates and ballot rejection statistics and reasons). We also conduct FOIA requests of county elections departments for copies of ballots or ballot images to conduct citizen audits of elections. They occasionally charge for duplication costs and we may run fundraising campaigns to cover these costs. We are a group of election protection activists and have not yet formed a 501C3 non-profit organization, therefore your donations are not tax-deductible. We always provide a clear outline of costs, receipts and focus our fundraising on covering incurred costs.

Please see our Action Items Archive page for the types of Action Items we organized in 2018 and 2019:

  • Raising awareness in Congress of election integrity hots spots
  • Raising election officials awareness risks in election systems
  • Campaign to preserve Swing States’ paper ballots & paper audit trails
  • Educate voters & campaigns as to the need for poll observers/watchers
  • Discuss voter registration and electronic pollbook security
  • Petitions for urgent changes in elections to Handmarked Paperballots
  • Watch & record results on SOS or County websites thru the night
  • Demand counties in Wisconsin and elsewhere conduct manual audits
  • Voter education with: Tips to Protect Your Vote and Voter Registration
  • Amplify existing lawsuits championing election integrity