The vulnerability of US voting systems to mass scale fraud has been well documented, but little has been done to establish meaningful checks. Bad as the last few elections have been, coming elections - including this one - could be worse. Purported "improvements" such as early and mail-voting and purging of voting rolls continue to undermine election integrity and a wide variety of vote suppression augurs poorly for what we may see on November 4.

One of the few ways to detect mass scale fraud under such conditions is an Election Verification Exit Poll. Such polls have been used around the world to ensure election integrity and have even been used to overturn fraudulent national elections. On November 4, Election Integrity is engaged in a two-part exit polling effort:

Our Plan:

(1) Our 3rd professional poll to determine and document the degree to which official numbers reflect how people say they have cast their ballots, to investigate any discrepancies and to establish exit polling as a meaningful verification technique (see our May primary pilot project). 

On Tuesday November 4, 2008, Election Integrity, together with Election Defense Alliance and The Warren Poll, will be conducting its third Election Verification Exit Poll (EVEP).

Most of you reading this message are well aware of precipitous trends in America, and also that a key reason for why we're on the edge is the corruption of our electoral processes. But most Americans, and even many of you, still have no idea of the extent to which they are corrupted. Despite rude awakenings in several recent Novembers, the relentless fictions propounded by both major political parties, the media and other purported guardians of the system has lulled America back to into a stupor. As a nation, we continue to view the spectacle of electoral politics from the grandstands where we cheer, root or boo while gorging on nutritionless calories. If all goes according to plan, we'll enjoy the show and then go to sleep entertained and addle-brained assuming all is, if not well, then at least as it must be.

But although the system is corrupt on every flank, an overwhelming majority of Americans still believe deeply in democracy and understand how election integrity underpins our rights and our future. By exposing corrupted processes and participating politically as opposed to simply spectating, we may yet assert influence and gain some control over the destiny of our country. Indeed, despite a battle of no money versus billions, we are making a difference. The term "election integrity" has entered the lexicon. Since December 2004, hundreds of groups loosely known as the election integrity movement have formed. We likely had a material impact in 2006 when, for the first time in many election cycles, fraud may well have been restrained. In states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California where our groups have been most active - egregious past results have not been repeated and/or proponents of election reform have won.
 
EVEPs hold perhaps the greatest promise for impact of any technique. The Bush administration has testified that they helped fund exit polls abroad because it is one of the only ways to expose large-scale fraud. Indeed, discrepancies between exit polls and the official results have been used to successfully overturn election results in Serbia, Peru, the Republic of Georgia and, in November 2004, Ukraine.