You are invited to evaluate and testify on what may become your new voting system for New York City.

On Tuesday, December 15, 2009,  the New York State Board of Elections certified two optical scanning voting systems  --  from Dominion and ES&S.   The Commissioners of the New York City Board of Elections will select one of them early next year for use in all future elections starting in the fall of 2010.

Bo Lipari, the only member of the Citizens Advisory Committee with a technical background and long advocate of verifiable voting systems, has said: "Based on my evaluation of the data I conclude that no matter how far they’ve come and how close they now are, the voting systems under consideration have not yet met all of New York’s requirements. I will therefore vote No on recommending approval of these systems for certification."  His entire report, "My Vote on NY Voting Machine Certification," can be read at http://www.bolipari.com/boblog/

The Board of Elections in the City of New York will be hosting public demonstrations and a public hearing of the two poll site voting systems that are being evaluated for use in the Fall 2010 elections and beyond. 

Event:       Public Demonstrations
Time:        Monday, December 21, 6 to 8 p.m.
Location:  Manhattan office of the New York City Board of Elections, 200
                 Varick Street, 10th Floor (corner of Houston & 7th Avenue South— take the 1 train to Houston St. stop).

Event:        Public Hearing*
Time:        Tuesday, December 29, 6 to 8 p.m.
Location:   Board of Elections in the City of New York Commissioners’ Hearing Room, 6th Floor
                  42 Broadway. New York, NY 10004
* Each speaker is limited to 3 minutes.

Other times and locations to view and test voting systems:

BROOKLYN
Wednesday 12/16/09
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Board of Elections Borough Office
345 Adams Street, 4th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201

QUEENS
Thursday 12/17/09
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Board of Elections Borough Office
126-06 Queens Boulevard, 1st Floor
Kew Gardens, NY 11415

STATEN ISLAND
Thursday 12/17/09
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Board of Elections Borough Office
1 Edgewater Plaza, 4th Floor
Staten Island, NY 10305

BRONX
Tuesday 12/22/09
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Board of Elections Borough Office
1780 Grand Concourse, 5th Floor
Bronx, NY 10457

For more information: call: 866-VOTE-NYC (866-868-3962) NYC Board of Elections: www.vote.nyc.ny.us
and/or call or email Tim Gay, Deputy Chief Clerk, Manhattan Board of Elections, 212-886-2109 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Who:  DFA, FireDogLake, and other progressive organizations are targetting specific members of Congress on health care!

What:  Phonebanking party!  We'll call like-minded people that are constituents of Congressional representatives that we need to persuade to support real health care reform, and ask these people to call their representatives.

When:  This Saturday, Dec. 12, 1-5pm

Where:  Home of Merle McEldowney, 76th & Broadway, Manhattan

RSVP:  merle.mceldowney-at-gmail.com (replace-at- with @)

More phonebanking events in NYC:  http://action.firedoglake.com/page/event/search_simple

Stop the Escalation of the Afghan War!

Emergency Anti-Escalation Rally
Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 • 11am-4pm • Washington DC
Lafayette Square | White House
Metro: Farragut West or Farragut North

Cynthia McKinney, Sen. Mike Gravel, Kathy Kelly, Chris Hedges, David Swanson, Coy McKinney, Debra Sweet, Mathis Chiroux, Lynne Williams, Hon. Betty Hall, Elaine Brower, Marian Douglas, Michael Knox, Ralph Lopez, Ron Fisher, and a message from Granny D (turning 100).

Featuring Musical Performances by Jordan Page, others TBA

For more information and updates go to: http://www.enduswars.org/