With just under three weeks left until the November 3rd election and early voting well underway in many states, The Lincoln Project is today beginning to expose voter intimidation and suppression throughout the country through the See Something, Say Something 2020 platform (SeeSay2020.com).
SeeSay2020.com is an online tool that allows voters to report instances of misinformation, voting machine issues, polling place wait times, and more, with the goal to attract media and legal attention to verified, ongoing issues in real time. This resource serves as a public map of voter suppression tactics as they are in progress, just as voters report them. You can get to the reporting tool, and the GIS incidents map, by going to SeeSay2020.com.
In 2016, the election was decided by slim margins in a few key swing states, proving that every single vote matters. This time around, there is nothing short of American democracy itself at stake. Every voice must be heard, and every vote counted.
Lincoln Project
“With numerous, blatant acts of voter suppression already underway in key states like Texas and Pennsylvania, it’s never been more important for us to work to ensure integrity at the polls,” said Reed Galen, co-founder of The Lincoln Project. “We’re encouraging all voters to make themselves, their friends, and family aware of SeeSay2020.com’s reporting capabilities and to report any trouble they face at the polls on November 3rd."
The Lincoln Project is a group of prominent Republicans that focus on shining a light on nefarious activities reported on Twitter using the hashtag #SeeSay2020, as well as direct voters to report instances of voter suppression using SeeSay2020.com. Information reported may be used to aid in litigation post-November 3rd.
Spotlight trouble makers
Most recently, SeeSay2020.com helped to crowd-source reports of South Carolina Democratic candidate Jaime Harrison’s name not appearing on paper ballots. For it’s part, the Lincoln Project recently began asking followers to share instances of voter intimidation and suppression to "make famous" those who would keep fellow Americans from casting their ballots.
“With numerous, blatant acts of voter suppression already underway in key states like Texas and Pennsylvania, it’s never been more important for us to work to ensure integrity at the polls,” said Reed Galen, co-founder of The Lincoln Project. “We’re encouraging all voters to make themselves, their friends, and family aware of SeeSay2020.com’s reporting capabilities and to report any trouble they face at the polls on November 3rd."
SeeSay2020
SeeSay was launched before the 2018 midterms and immediately worked to daylight voter suppression as it was happening, just by making it all visible. For too long, voters have known what they’re up against, without having a collective place to show it. The solution has been enhanced for the general election:
- Support for reports in both English and Spanish
- More robust screening of submissions with volunteer teams from Reclaim Our Vote and Students For Justice
- Enhanced visualization and alerts with esri ArcGIS, StoryMaps and Dashboards
- Social media monitoring for tweets about voter suppression with Nexalogy
- Collaboration with groups such as Scrutineers and Transparent Elections NC that collect poll tape photos to ensure accurate vote counts.
- More detailed classification of voter suppression with cascading questions using suggestions from Trust The Vote
- Broader distribution of the solution through partners including Black American Music Assn and Voting Rights Are Civil Rights
- Online exposure from election security experts including Jennifer Cohn
How to fight voter suppression
ATTN #LincolnVoters: EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!
We are thrilled to announce our new partnership with Democracy Labs for the See Something, Say Something 2020 Initiative. This platform will help #LincolnVoters report instances of voter suppression in real time. This system is designed to supplement other existing voter suppression protection systems by using the Lincoln Project Army as witnesses to voter intimidation tactics. When someone uses #SeeSay2020, Democracy Labs has the coordinates and timestamp of when/where it was posted online and can verify it’s legitimacy.
If you have witnessed an act of voter suppression:
1. Report: Head to SeeSay2020.com
2. Upload: Document any instances of voter suppression that you encounter: take photos, note timestamps and locations, add descriptions.
3. Submit: Reported incidents will go through a screening process to remove spam and false positives.
4. Expose: Use the hashtag #SeeSay2020 on your social media platforms to ensure that Donald Trump knows what will happen #WhenWeAllVote.
Resources
Take a bite of voting crime. Take photos of poll tapes to improve the accuracy of election counts.
Voter suppression: This is not a game. Samantha Bee.
See Something, Say Something about voter intimidation.
Take away
Please share See Say 2020 and the hashtag #SeeSay2020 so we can collectively expose obstacles to fair elections. Learn how journalists, legal groups and advocates for voting rights can get details of the incidents reported.