Protect Your Vote
a forum for community dialogue and voter education
Protect Your Vote is a dialogue between you - the voting citizen - and two experts on Florida elections about how to ensure that your vote counts.
All are welcome, please invite your friends!
When: Thursday, February 2, 2012
7:00pm - 8:30pm
Where: Unitarian Universalist Church
2810 N. Meridian Road, Tallahassee, FL
Questions: Please call 305-3009 and leave a message or email: lwvtallahassee@gmail.com
"Voting Should be Simple, Shouldn't it?"
Our dialogue will begin with a presentation by nationally recognized elections expert, Dr. Arlene Ash, followed by brief comments from Ion Sancho, Leon County Supervisor of Elections, then open to discussion and questions by all in attendance.
Dr. Arlene Ash will discuss what she has learned as a statistical expert examining irregularities in Florida's elections in 2000 and 2006 (specifically absentee ballot irregularities in Martin County, FL and massive undervotes that changed the outcome of a U.S. Congressional race in Sarasota County, FL).
By sharing her observations of what went wrong in those elections, she will help to empower citizens to improve our elections systems and increase our confidence in election results. She will also discuss how to improve post-election audits-which are critical to voter confidence in election outcomes-as well as her research on the reasons for and impact of strict voter ID laws upon our ability to vote.
Ion Sancho will begin our dialogue by reacting to and elaborating upon Dr. Arlene Ash's formal presentation. He is also going to help you register to vote and answer any questions you may have about how to cast a ballot in this coming election season.
Mr. Sancho has served as Supervisor of Elections in Leon County since 1989. He was appointed by the Florida Supreme Court in December of 2000 as the technical expert to oversee the Florida Recount effort and was recognized by the Leon County Board of County Commissioners for providing "statistically the cleanest county elections in the state" during that infamous election. In 2005, Mr. Sancho sanctioned the first tests of voting machines by voting integrity experts, independent of the vendors. His action were captured in the 2007 Emmy nominated film, "Hacking Democracy."
Speaker's Biography, in brief:
Arlene S. Ash is Professor in the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA. In December 2000 she testified in the Martin County, Florida absentee ballot fraud trial. For several years she was Vice-Chair of the American Statistical Association's (ASA's) Committee on Scientific and Public Affairs and Chair of its subcommittee on Electoral Integrity. She has worked with the ASA and the Verified Voting Foundation to develop guidelines for best practices in election audits. She is co-author on several voting-related articles, including "Florida 2006: Can Statistics Tell Us Who Won Congressional District-13?" Chance. 2008; 21(2): 18-24.
That article and related materials can be found on the ASA's "Election Auditing Resources Page" at http://www.amstat.org/outreach/electionauditingresources.cfm
Discussant's Biography, in brief:
Ion Sancho has served as Supervisor of Elections in Leon County since 1989. He was appointed by the Florida Supreme Court in December of 2000 as the technical expert to oversee the Florida Recount effort and was recognized by the Leon County Board of County Commissioners for providing "statistically the cleanest county elections in the state" during that infamous election. In 2005, Mr. Sancho sanctioned the first tests of voting machines by voting integrity experts, independent of the vendors. His actions were captured in the 2007 Emmy nominated film, "Hacking Democracy."
