Kitchen Table Activism

Background: Kitchen Table Activism (KTA) is a monthly project of the Rural Organizing Project. Often building on quarterly themes, short actions are described in each KTA. The theory is that basic steps and tasks can lead to powerful collective results as small groups of people gather to complete the same action throughout the state of Oregon.

ROP works to keep the basic tasks easily achievable so that groups with other projects or groups with limited immediate energy can still manage to complete the KTA each month.

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August 2005 Activity

Safeguarding Oregon’s Election System

Why This Activity?

Across the country voting systems are increasingly becoming computerized raising questions about accountability. Now is the time to promote the human side of election checks and balances — it is important to know our County Clerks! County Clerks have a mandate and the power to safeguard a fair electoral system.

Oregonians vote with a paper ballot, but our ballots are scanned and counted by computers programmed by private corporations that use trade secret software that cannot be viewed even by election officials. These companies often have highly partisan political and financial conflicts of interest. An election audit is the most efficient way to verify that computer tallies reflect an accurate vote count. The Oregon Voter Rights Project is pushing for Oregon elections to include a mandatory election audit procedure.

In an election audit, an election official hand counts a scientifically determined random sample of paper ballots. This is a simple, reliable, and inexpensive way to verify the accuracy of the computer count. The audit sample must agree with the computer count within a small margin of error. If the sample is outside this margin, all the ballots for that race must be recounted by hand.

What Is This Activity?

Let’s visit our County Clerks! Ideally, each human dignity group will select a person or team to meet with the County Clerk. In person is best, but a phone date should not be discounted, especially if your county seat is located a distance from you.

The Oregon County Clerks Association will be meeting in mid-August and hopefully (with pressure from community members) a mandatory election audit will be discussed. Take advantage of summer vacation and go meet and greet your county elections clerk. Find out more about the county election system and share your concerns about a mandatory election audit procedure. Be sure to thank your county clerk for all they do, as they might become your most important resource next election cycle.

Take action to reduce corporate influence on election results! Visit Fair Elections Oregon for a copy of their Campaign Finance Reform ballot initiatives for 2006.

Steps To Complete The Activity

1. Find out who in your group wants to be involved in this project and meet your County Clerk.
2. Call up your local Clerk and set up an appointment to come meet with him/her in the next few weeks. (The phone number should be in the beginning of your local phone book.)
3. Check out the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition’s campaign for election audits for more details about mandatory election auditing.
4. For those in your group who don’t actually attend the meeting, consider making a phone call or sending a letter to the County Clerk sharing your support for a mandatory election audit procedure in Oregon.
5. Send a thank you card to your local clerk for meeting with you.
6. Share your story back with the larger human dignity alliance of Oregon.
7. ROP would really like to know how these conversations go and be able share that information around the state. Please e-mail cara@rop.org or call us at 503-543-8417.
8. Visit FairElections Oregon for more information on the Campaign Finance Reform petitions and other options to ensure fair elections here in Oregon.

Previous KTAs are now located in the KTA Archive.