Happy Holidays!

Just one year ago, some of this countryâs most experienced and knowledgeable election integrity advocates joined together to found VoteTrustUSA, a national, nonpartisan coalition and support network for the e-voting reform groups that had sprung up in states across the country.  Before VoteTrustUSA was founded, these groups operated in isolation, with little outside support. 

Today, VoteTrustUSA provides a wide range of support services, information resources, collaborative tools and a strong national voice for 50 state-based organizations.  These groups have been instrumental in securing legislation and regulations requiring voter verified paper records of every vote in 27 states across the country (19 in 2005 alone), with random manual audits mandated in almost half of them.  

As we approach our first anniversary, Iâd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and update you on what the national VoteTrustUSA organization has accomplished in 2005.

• In Washington, DC, VoteTrustUSA built positive, working relationships with 85 US Senate offices, 60 U.S. Representatives, Majority and Minority Senate leadership, and leadership of relevant House and Senate Committees.
• We provided testimony to the Election Assistance Commission, the General Accountability  Office, the Senate Rules Committee, and the Commission on Federal Election Reform.
•  We organized Lobby Days in Washington DC and in-district, involving more than 700 citizen-lobbyists, in coalition with several other major organizations.  VoteTrustUSAâs participation included scheduling constituent visits with more than 80 Members of Congress, developing training and support materials, and accompanying citizen activists to over 40 meetings.
•  We consulted directly with Senate and House legislative staff in the preparation of election integrity legislation.
• We held a highly successful, 3-day Leadership Workshop and Strategy Session in Washington DC, bringing together more than 60 leaders of state and local election integrity organizations from states across the country.
•  We effectively connected state and local leaders of the VoteTrust USA coalition, enabling them to communicate, strategize, and work together with their peers and VoteTrustUSA staff in real time.
• We provided direct consultation, resource development and/or one-to-one assistance upon request to leaders of more than 35 state and county level organizations.
•  We launched an interactive, Online Knowledge Base at http://www.VoteTrustUSA.org to provide immediate access to continually updated informational and educational resources.
•  We published more than 100 original briefing papers and analysis pieces based on research and input by VoteTrustUSA staff and coalition leaders.
• We developed training materials in key subject areas (Organizational Development; Media Strategies; Framing the Issues; Lobbying Skills and Strategies; Auditing Elections; and Poll Watching Strategies for Electronic Voting) requested by coalition leaders
• We published Daily Voting News, which is also used as a daily feature on other websites and blogs.
•  We published web pages for each of the 50 states, providing state-specific background and reference materials, articles by our staff and coalition leaders, and reports on the progress of election integrity movement in each state.
•  We launched a weekly email newsletter, Election Integrity News, with more than 8,000 subscribers.
•  We created state-specific internet forums for activists.
•  We spoke at numerous national conferences, including the first-ever joint strategy meeting of leaders of national Voting Rights and Election Reform organizations.
• We published a 125-page briefing book on the election laws and chief elections officers in all 50 states.
•  We launched a national and state-by-state email alert service enabling the state-based groups in our coalition to send letters to their state legislators as well as their US Senators and Representatives.

Working together, we have made a great deal of progress, but there is much more to be done if we are to reclaim democracy! 

VoteTrustUSA moves into 2006 with the expertise, experience, and organizational framework in place to make even greater strides toward safeguarding the security, accuracy and integrity of our elections.  I hope youâll help us to continue the critical work of:

• Developing strong and effective election integrity organizations in all 50 states.
• Working for passage of state and federal legislation requiring voter-verified paper ballots with random manual audits in every election nationwide.
•  Acting as watchdogs at the federal, state and local level to ensure that elections officials are not allowed to skirt state or federal laws in carrying out their duties.
• Educating the public, public officials and legislators on the federal, state and county level, about the need for voter-verified paper ballots and mandatory random manual audits in all elections.
• Increasing the transparency and accountability of voting and vote counting at the local, state and national levels.

As the calendar turns to a New Year (and a new election), I hope you will consider including VoteTrustUSA in your year-end charitable donations.*  Please help us continue the fight to take back our elections, because if your vote doesn't count, nothing else matters. 

Thank you for your support!

Joan Krawitz

Executive Director

VoteTrustUSA

http://VoteTrustUSA.org

* Vote Trust USA is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization. As a project of the International Humanities Center, a 501(c)(3) organization, VoteTrustUSA can offer donors tax deductibility to the full extent permitted by law. Our mailing address is IH Center/VoteTrustUSA, 2911-A Fulton Street, Berkeley CA 94705 To donate online, please click here.