There's been much wringing of hand and gnashing of tooth over the impending 2006 Stolen Elections (myself included). With stories breaking into the corporate MSM (esp. Lou Dobbs on CNN) of Dieblod's voting machine vulnerabilities, touch screen machines flipping votes to repubs in S FL, and voting machine "sleep-overs" in San Diego,CA.

While not, perhaps, the intended effect, this news has the psychological effect of discouraging and dissuading active participation in our democratic process (ie: Voter Suppression). The wife, however, in her infinite wisdom, has a simple answer to these developments - "I'm going to vote, they're not going to stop me, I'm going to make them steal my vote". So what can we do to catch the Republican Dirty Tricksters trying to steal our votes? Below are listed several Election Protection initiatives to help stop the disenfranchisement by the Republican election suppression machine and maybe catch them red-handed. Make them steal your vote....

There are several ways to participate in Election Protection activities. One of the latest is called Video the Vote. Our own Bob Fertik has started a Blue Revolution slated for election night. There are toll-free hotlines to call in problems. Even do-it yourself exit polling...

• Election Protection Hotline. If you encounter any problem in the voting process call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) for English or 1-888-VEY-VOTA (1-888-839-8682 para la ayuda en espanol).
• Working Asset's Voter Protection Immediate Response Network. We may not have enough time to email you, but we can deliver a text message or place a call straight to your phone with a short and easy action that could help save the election. Signing up takes only a moment, and you'll be a great service in helping protect the election. We may need to urge the local election offices to keep the polls open to compensate for delayed poll openings, such as what happened in Maryland's primary this year. We might push for more voting machines to be delivered to precincts with very long lines. We may need to show up in person and witness poll-closing procedures. We might also need to show up in person at our county election offices to protest voter fraud or voter intimidation at the polls. And we may need people to go with video cameras in hand, interview voters who've had problems, and then post that video to the web. You can also sign-up with WA partner, the Ruckus Society...
• People for the American Way's Election Protection 365. National, state, and local members of the Election Protection coalition are working at a fever pitch to get this historic voter protection program's Election Day components ready to go. Are you part of the effort? People For the American Way Foundation has taken responsibility inside the coalition to help in five key states: Ohio, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey. We need you to help us there. Can you volunteer?
• Election Verification Exit Poll. To protect the vote count, we must have an independent way to assess the will of the voters. For this reason, the Vote Count Protection Project includes an Election Verification Exit Poll. In selected precincts, we will interview a representative sample of voters to determine their choices of candidates. The raw data, precinct by precinct, will be publicly posted. This transparency will allow statisticians of every political stripe to perform independent analyses. Note that media-sponsored exit polls, such as the 2004 US Presidential exit poll, do not make their raw data available in this way, and are not Election Verification Exit Polls. Read the Election Verification Exit Poll plan details (PDF, 104Kb).
• Do Your Own Exit Poll: While we cannot take responsibility for exit polls that we do not supervise ourselves, there is no harm in your doing a poll in your own region. Here are instructions for doing your own election verification exit poll...
• Election Defense Alliance. The purpose of EDA is to help build and coordinate a comprehensive, cohesive national strategy for the election integrity movement, in order to regain public control of the voting process in the United States, and to insure that the process is honest, transparent, secure, subject to unambiguous verification, and worthy of the public trust.
• Verified Voting.org's Election Transparency Project. Do you wonder whether your vote counts? Are you losing faith in our electoral process? Do you think our elections are as accurate as they should be? Are you concerned that the results might be vulnerable to fraud or machine failure?
• VotersUnite.org. A non-partisan national grassroots resource for fair and accurate elections! We believe in the power of facts.
• Video the Vote. In 2000 and 2004, problems plagued the polls in different parts of the country: long lines, eligible voters turned away, voter intimidation, misallocation and malfunctioning of voting equipment. They were underreported on Election Day. Days and weeks later, a more complete picture of voter disenfranchisement emerged—but it was too late. The elections were over and the media had moved on. Starting this election, citizen journalists—people like you and I—will document problems as they occur. We'll play them online, spread word through blogs and partner websites, doing our part to make sure the full story of our elections is told.
• VelvetRevolution.us has launched an Election Protection Strike Force as a new approach to grassroots action, a multi-pronged campaign to put elections back in the hands of the people. The Election Protection Strike Force will target electronic voting problems and voter disenfranchisement schemes through: $250,000 ELECTION FRAUD REWARD FUND to encourage whistleblowers to share information about election rigging. This reward will be paid for information about election fraud leading to overturning a House or Senate. Hotline - call: 1-888 VOTETIP

If you know of any other Election Protection initiatives please list them below in comments. Also check Alternet editor Don Hazen's excellent article "How to Stop the November Elections from Being Stolen" quoting democrats.com's own Bob Fertik...

...So what do you tell voters to help them combat this psychological problem that could depress voting? "I tell voters we have to win by such an overwhelming margin that it isn't close enough to steal," says Bob Fertik, the head of Democrats.com, an activist web site not part of the Democratic party, that calls themselves aggressive progressives...

...Democrats.com's Bob Fertik says, "We have to get involved in organized efforts to audit the elections by groups like www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org, www.VelvetRevolution.us, www.BlackBoxVoting.org, etc. I'd also like to see Democratic voters hold candlelight vigils outside each county's board of elections after the polls close, holding signs saying 'Count Every Vote' and 'No More Stolen Elections!' Imagine a Blue Revolution, every bit as joyous and historic as the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the Cedar Revolution Lebanon, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia -- right here in the United States of America...."