From Black Box Voting: You can help safeguard our elections

Black Box Voting, of “Hacking Democracy” fame, sent out an email to its supporters this week asking them to volunteer. Not for the organization, but to volunteer as tech support for voting machine vendors on Election Day. Responsible citizens doing this helps ensure that voting goes smoothly and there are no errors or hacking. The full email:

This post will no doubt produce howls of objection for the vendors that read it.
Black Box Voting is encouraging all individuals with a technical background to
search and apply for temporary tech ELECTION SUPPORT jobs for the November 2008
election. 

Hiring is underway for temporary technicians to help with voting machines this
fall. Vendor dependence is undermining the structure of US elections, as
described here in the new report by VotersUnite.org: 

http://www.votersunite.org/info/ReclaimElections.pdf

We want to see You, the People, enter into the vendor mix directly. 

HOW TO FIND TEMPORARY ELECTION TECH POSITIONS: 

In a presidential election year, voting machine vendors will hire and train
thousands of technicians staffed around the country. For example, anywhere that
Election Systems & Software has a machine, they are under contract to provide an
on-site support tech. Hart Intercivic, Premier (Diebold), and Sequoia also use
Election Day support technicians. 

Temporary election tech support jobs have been spotted on hotjobs.com,
rollouts.com, and local tech temp firms like (in 2006) DecisionOne. The tech
services firm may be a subcontractor for the big four voting machine companies.
Sometimes you'll find the positions advertised by your local county. 

Sites like Rollouts.com have you register in their E-tech database. They search
for techs based on skill set and area. There isn't much in the way of a skill
set needed for the election projects. 

QUIETLY APPLY FOR THE JOBS

Anyone with tech skills interested in safeguarding the November election is
encouraged to register at technical recruiting sites and apply for any
election-related projects. 

CONSIDER ASKING FOR TIME OFF ON YOUR FULL TIME JOB TO DO THIS.  This November,
there may be no better way to watch the behind-the-scenes process than to be a
stagehand, so to speak. 

It is not the vendor, and not the government, that has the right to elections
information, it is the PUBLIC. Citizens have inalienable rights to sovereignty
over the government they created and pay for. These rights cannot be honored
without mechanisms to see all information related to elections, and ultimately,
to have control processes that honor citizen sovereignty. 

That said, it ain't gonna happen this November. Therefore it is entirely
appropriate, patriotic, and important, for citizens to apply for temporary
positions as voting machine technicians to provide inside public oversight for
the process. 

There will be nondisclosure agreements, which are not appropriate at all for
public elections, but it's a reality now that vendors are trespassing on citizen
right to know. There may be issues that arise which the public clearly has a
right to know. When that happens, a decision must be made.

YOU WON'T BE THE FIRST

We have already been in communications with other patriotic volunteers who have
successfully obtained these positions in the past, and are doing this for
November. 

THERE ARE ALWAYS WAYS TO DEAL WITH IMPORTANT ISSUES IF THEY ENDANGER THE PUBLIC
GOOD. You, the People, are needed on the inside of the elections industry this
November.

This is a public service bulletin from Black Box Voting. 

Black Box Voting Tool Kit 2008 - free download here: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit2008.pdf

Empower more election watchdog actions:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057