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Protect California Ballots

Judy Alter, emeritus UCLA Professor, began working on election justice issues four days after the California Oct. 2003 Recall Election when Lynn Landes offered compelling evidence about how Diebold machines swung the election away from Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante to the current governor. Before the Nov. 2004 election, she urged elected officials to consider counting voters’ filled in sample ballots to check the accuracy of the secret software being used in the election. Jeremiah Akin trained her in the thwarted Recount New Mexico effort.

She subsequently analyzed the voting results in Santa Fe NM and since Jan, 2005, has given numerous talks about her findings there as a case study of voting irregularities in Nov. 2004. She also gives talks about the problems facing voters in California and Los Angeles County in up-coming elections.

Judy started Study California Ballots (now Protect California Ballots) and signed up over 300 volunteers in 16 California counties to work toward unsealing the 2004 ballots. In July, 2005 some of her volunteers invited her to help audit the San Diego mayoral election where she led 23 volunteers from seven CA counties in parallel elections at 5 polling sites. She helped train volunteers in five California counties who conducted 19 parallel elections in the special election in November 2005 and helped citizens in several other states conduct them. She will help volunteers conduct many more “citizens’ written exit polls” (parallel elections) in up-coming 2006 elections.

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