Kenya’s Ushahidi has launched a platform to monitor the ongoing US presidential elections pitting Hillary Clinton of the Democratic party and controversial businessman Donald Trump from the Republican party as the main actors.
This comes against the backdrop of unprecedented conversation in the 2016 USA election concerning the voting process as well as some potential worry of violence on the Election Day.
“While, there is no evidence of voter fraud in America there are instances of voter suppression and voting issues on election day. As citizens, let’s raise our voices and help to report any issues on election day as well as celebrate all those who run a tight ship and bring trust to the underpinning of our democratic systems, ” said the Ushahidi Team on their website.
The platform is a nonpartisan citizen-led election monitoring project that will utilize the Ushahidi crowd sourcing software for the sake of transparency.
Ushahidi has helped run citizen-led election monitoring in countries around the world before.
“Let us emphasize that there are many other election monitoring entities working with approved trained monitors on election day. This includes all state legislatures, both campaigns, the DNC and RNC, as well as non-partisan third party monitors. To learn more about the process, read the National Conference of State Legislatures page on policies for election observers in the USA,” said the team.
Ushahidi was categorical that the project is not meant to replace or compete with any existing efforts, but to only to complement them.
This is a means for regular citizens who are going to vote, to report on any issues they come across, anything they witness, as well as to say that everything went great!
In case of any observation or reports go to usaelectionmonitor.com to learn how to report on the election or to help with verification of reports.
How it works
Citizens can report via Website, SMS, Twitter, or Email. Vetted volunteers will then verify those reports and publish them to this site, where they can be viewed on a map and timeline.
How you can help
1) Report on the election
Will you be at a voting booth on Nov 8th? If so, you can report to this election monitoring tool via:
- Webform at: ushahidi.io
- SMS: (302) 268-9516
- Twitter: #usaelectionmonitor
- Email: Usaelectionmonitor@gmail.com
2) Become a vetted verifier and help verify reports on election day
Join the team and help verify all incoming reports. We will give you a training on how to run the tool, and set you up to help triage and verify any incoming reports on Nov 8th.
3) Get the word out!
Help us spread the word to all citizens about how to report on election day!
Suggested posts for social media:
All citizens can submit reports about polling locations and voting experiences at http://bit.ly/2exqIMl #USAelectionmonitor
Are you witnessing or experiencing voter suppression at your polling location? Raise your voice and report it here http://bit.ly/2fax8m0 #USAelectionmonitor
Many thanks for helping contribute to transparency in our electoral processes.
