Begun in March 2005, the Election Reform Network has evolved into a respected citizens' voice for protecting voting rights and the integrity of elections, as well as for standing up for reforms to strengthen the overall democratic process here in Montgomery County and across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 

Here is an overview of our recent achievements: 

• We were a key complainant working in conjunction with Voter Action and the Pennsylvania NAACP in a successful federal law suit in the weeks prior to the November 4, 2008 election.  The result was a court order which expanded opportunity to vote by emergency paper ballot in Pennsylvania when vote machines failed to operate.  The court case underscored the principle of voting rights not being held hostage to unpredictable machine failures (click here for more);

• We monitored the polls during the 08 general election, as we have done since 2006, documenting problems and concerns, this time at some 150 target precincts across Montgomery County.  We then immediately followed up on election day with calls to county officials to resolve specific problems, such as the failure to provide provisional ballots;

• We observed tthe 08 general election official vote count, which includes overseas ballots, eligible provisional ballots, emergency ballots, a recounting of absentee ballots and adding all paper ballot figures to the machine counts, which are based on the final tape from each vote machine;

• We reported our preliminary findings on the 08 general election, principally about problems with the administration of provisional and emergency ballots, to the Board of Elections at its November 13 meeting.  (Click here for a bare-bones Times-Herald story.)  We also reported at that time that Montgomery County failed to open the process of determining the eligibility of provisional ballots to official observers of the count, despite the requirement of the Pennsylvania election code. (The county agreed to do so in the future and did allow representatives from the Election Reform Network and the Advancement Project to review the process.) Montgomery County fully rejected 68 percent and partially rejected an additional 17 percent of total provisional ballots cast (612) in the last election;

• We sponsored the Candidate Pledge for Election Reform, a three-part pledge independently endorsed by a bipartisan group of nine state legislative candidates from across Montgomery County.  The pledge, supported by incumbents and challengers, four of whom won their elections, was a valuable step in the process of moving forward with legislation on election reforms in Harrisburg.  It called for: strengthening election integrity and voter confidence by requiring voter-marked paper ballots and a post-election ballot auditing process; establishing limits on campaign contributions for all public offices and creating a program of public financing of all state and local election campaigns; and ending the "gerrymandering" of congressional and state legislative districts in Pennsylvania;

• We advocated successfully for Montgomery County to issue emergency paper ballots (EPBs) separate and distinct from provisional ballot forms to eliminate the possibility that EPBs would be subject to rejection if they are confused with provisional ballots;

• We pressed successfully for Montgomery County to agree to issue regular post-election reports about overall operating issues after every election, as we continue to issue our own reports on election day operations, based on our network of observers on the ground; and

• We organized public education and vehicles for citizen involvement, including our April 08 screening of the documentary film, "Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections," which was followed by a lively public forum, at the HiWay Theatre in Jenkintown.