Video the Vote
Posted on November 6, 2006
If you want to participate in all the voting-related citizen journalism projects you will need both your digital camera and your camcorder. You will need your camera for the Polling Place Photo Project we mentioned earlier. There is also the Video the Vote project which is using citizen video clips to stop voter suppression and observe the vote at polling places.
Welcome to Video the Vote. Our goal is to protect the vote by being the eyes and ears where ballots are cast and counted on Election Day. We will document and report any irregularities that occur at polling places and boards of elections while they are happening, enabling the media and public to watch-dog the electoral process across our country.You will have to sign up as a volunteer videographer to be part of Video the Vote.Video the Vote was created by Ian Inaba of the Guerrilla News Network, John Ennis of Shoot First, and James Rucker of ColorOfChange.org. The three originally sought to provide a platform to help independent filmmakers coordinate their efforts on election day-documenting election problems and pushing those stories into the mainstream media. The idea morphed into a populist program where ordinary people could participate. They'd simply agree to be on-call to document any Election Day problems that arise in their area; the only requirements being having a digital video recorder, a cell phone, and broadband Internet access, and agreeing to respect governing election law.
Since starting, several organizations have partnered with us to make Video the Vote a success, namely Common Cause, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The League of Young Voters Education Fund, People for the American Way Foundation, and Rock the Vote.