Tools for Disenfranchised Voters - spread the word

Dear Colleague,

In collaboration with the Funders' Committee for Civic Participation and
with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation,
and the Open Society Institute, we are writing to let you know about a
new tool we have developed to assist voters who may experience problems
voting on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. Because of the dramatic increase of
electronic voting machines and longstanding concerns about the integrity
of the democratic process, we created VoterStory.org, a distributed web
"widget" to help record and gather individual voter problems experienced
on Election Day.

VoterStory.org <*http:/www.voterstory.org *>
is an open source distributed web site widget that we hope you will
place on your website for Election Day. It is our hope that this
distributed widget will appear across the web and throughout the country
so voters who are having trouble can get their story recorded.

As you can see, the tool is designed to document individual instances or
stories where a voter is having trouble voting or has been denied the
right to vote. Once a "story" is submitted, it will automatically be
referred to nonprofit, nonpartisan voter protection organizations that
will be standing by to intervene or lend support, *if they can*. With
your participation, we believe VoterStory.org will increase the
capacity to address the specific voter problems that may occur on
Election Day by organizing the relevant stories and making sure the
information is forwarded to the appropriate authorities. Voters using
the system will receive an e-mail confirmation and will be registered in
a database of election incidents that can be used by numerous groups to
document the need for election reforms in the future.

Please visit VoterStory.org to register
your organization and help us roll out this important utility. We would
appreciate it if you would spread the word to other groups active in
this election so they will consider joining this effort. Every voter
should be able to go to the polls with the confidence that their vote
will count.

With your help, VoterStory.org will play a
vital role in protecting voters now and in future elections.

Sincerely,
*Rob Stuart*, President of Evolve Strategies
on behalf of

*Donna Edwards*, and *Geri Mannion*,
Cochairs, Funders' Committee for Civic Participation