Show Me The Vote!!

P.O. Box 1864

Independence, Missouri 64055

An open letter to all Missouri Election Officials

September 29, 2008

This letter is being sent to each County Clerk and Election Director in Missouri. Some recipients may already be familiar with our organization, a 501c (3) dedicated to voting rights. We are a low profile, private member organization and, apart from our sponsorship of a Constitutional Initiative Petition in 2007, our activities are largely out of sight.

Consequently, this letter marks a huge departure from our normal habits. Unfortunately, in our opinion, it is both necessary and urgent.

Missouri has long been a bellwether state. As such, a botched election here in even one or two key areas could cause us to become the next Florida or the next Ohio… to the shame of us all. Is there a possibility of that happening? Sadly, from what Show Me The Vote !! has observed, at close quarters, since August 5th, it seems a certainty. And, as our SMTV !! Chairman said, in a recent interview with the KCTribune.com, “You can’t do much to fix a bad election. You must get it right the first time.”

Unfortunately, when he and his son, also a board member, attempted to vote at the same precinct they have voted at for the last eight years, and each offering four different forms of acceptable ID while refusing to provide the “signature ID” demanded of them, precinct judges felt calling the police was necessary.

As a result, both our chairman and his son were denied their vote, being told by the police to either a) provide the “signature ID” demanded, b) leave the precinct and never return, or c) be handcuffed and taken to jail. The chairman sent the son off for assistance while he was arrested for failure to provide said “signature ID”.

Details of this are available at the website (showmethevote.org) which we are hurriedly assembling to deal with problems we see looming in Missouri. Or Google “Independence Missouri man arrested voting”.

Meanwhile, this story by Jo Mannies mentions many of the possible problems in November.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/news/editorialcommenta...

We of SMTV !! truly believe most Missouri election supervisors and county clerks want full, fair and successful elections in November. So we now directly ask your help to achieve that common goal.

By helping determine where there is not a likelihood of problems, we can all concentrate on areas where problems are likely. Obviously, the arrest in Jackson County has already shown that jurisdiction to be a tinderbox.

Our SMTV !! Strategic Action Committee (SAC), consulting with the County Oversight Teams, has arrived at a method which should help determine where problems are likely, and where they are not.

SMTV !! has its own view of elections, most of which are codified in a ten point manifesto which accompanies this letter. Though we don’t expect all election officials to embrace our tenets, it is thought that those wishing for open and honest election results will agree with SMTV !! regarding two other issues likely to confront us this November. Those two issues being a) what constitutes adequate and proper voter identification and b) the issue of disenfranchisement by various methods, but with especial attention being paid to the technique called “voter caging” and by improper removal of voters from the lists of registered voters.

By addressing these issues publicly, and providing our web site as a venue for election officials to communicate directly with their constituents, we feel that voters will feel greater confidence that their votes will be counted as cast, if that confidence is truly warranted. Your direct answers, posted at our web site, may also reduce the total time spent addressing the same questions multiple times during what is expected to be an historically busy election with huge turnout.

We could even hope that this honest interchange between voters and election officials would encourage many more voters to volunteer as workers in this election. To that end, Show Me The Vote !! will make the recruitment of poll workers a priority. Honest exchanges, presented in this venue before the election, may help allay anxieties and allow election officials an added channel to address their voters. Likewise, worrisome replies or silence will let voters know to be especially cautious.

What we propose is to ask you five questions in order to facilitate this process. We will then post your answers to our web site. The first two concern particular problems expected in November, two are simple “yes” and “no” replies, and the last allows SMTV !! members to understand your own thoughts about your job and elections.

1) Since Voter ID has been such a contentious issue, and since it is the Secretary of State who determines what the ID requirements should be, will you be willing to link your web site to the Voter ID requirement at the SoS web site? http://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/voterid /.

2) SMTV !! considers “voter fraud” much less important than voter participation (since only 38 cases were prosecuted nationally since 2000). Our belief is that “caging” techniques, and intentional disenfranchisement, are tantamount to a butcher putting his thumb on the scale of Democracy. To us, it is alike to holding trials with a “guilty until proven innocent” presumption. A very un-American concept, indeed.

Will you affirm that you will do your utmost to insure that no voter is deprived of their franchise? When there may be a question, will you commit to erring on the side of allowing their vote as opposed to allowing their disenfranchisement ?

3) Are you willing to address voters who choose to address you through our web site?

4) Would you be willing to work with, inform, and communicate with our SMTV !! County Monitors in your jurisdiction? Would you also extend that courtesy to members from out of state?

5) Will you communicate with voters through the showmethevote.org web site? If so, would you be willing to weigh in on the 10 points of the SMTV !! manifesto?

We thank you for your time and hope you will accept our invitation. There is a stamped, return envelope enclosed with which you may reply to SMTV !! We anxiously await your reply.

/s/ The SMTV !! Strategic Action Committee
P.O. Box 1864
Independence, Missouri 64055