Video the Vote

As you may know the upcoming election is going to be the most documented election in history. Two years ago Ian Inaba of Guerrilla News Network, John Ennis and James Rucker developed the idea to video the vote. For information on uploading your own video and to view a map of the United States that indicates problem sites visit You Tube Video the Vote.

I had the pleasure of meeting John Ennis and Sam Zamko of Guerrilla News, along with several local activists for dinner,at the Golden Dawn, in Youngstown last night to discuss how Video the Vote will be handled in Youngstown. It was a fascinating discussion of politics, the election and of course Youngstown. It was a very pleasant surprise this morning when I found that Sam had published a post to Guerrilla News Network article titled, Young-stown at Heart.(scroll down the page to locate the article)

If you have trouble at the polls on Tuesday, please feel free to contact me via e-mail and I will do everything in my power to get a video crew out to the polling location. My e-mail is: debraweaver2000@hotmail.com.

Video the Vote operates through a simple three step process.
1. Volunteers sign up online, providing contact information and video proficiency.
2. On election day, voters call in to national hotlines to report problems at the polls, Video the Vote dispatches our volunteers to get the story. The organization will also be obtaining footage from roving videographers who are documenting the election process in their communities.
3. Volunteers then upload their footage to the website where it is available for immediate viewing by the media and the public.

This is important because not only will there be more people voting in this election than ever before, but there undoubtedly will be bumps along the way, long lines, broken machines, confusion over the registration process, and even voter intimidation and fraud. Video can help document where problems occur in a very concrete way.

If you have questions regarding this and other election laws in Ohio you can find information here.