1. ONLY REGISTERED USERS MAY POST INFORMATION OR COMMENTS To register, Click Here

2. ALL USERS MUST PROVIDE REAL FIRST AND LAST NAME and full address and contact information.

- Your contact information is NEVER seen by anyone but the key people at Black Box Voting, and is NEVER sold or shared.

- Your real first and last name WILL APPEAR on any comments you post

- You may request a privacy waiver by sending an e-mail to us. Please include your reason for requesting a waiver along with your full contact information

3. WHY DOES BLACK BOX VOTING REQUIRE THIS INFORMATION?
In 2004, this Web site was sabotaged by hackers and trolls. "Trolls" are disruptors whose purpose is to spread disinformation, spam, and litter the message board in order to devalue the real information. During federal election years disruption increases. Black Box Voting is stricter than most sites in requiring accurate information from participants.

4. GUIDLINES FOR POSTING INFORMATION

- We are a nonpartisan site. No campaigning.

- Focus on issues, not personalities.

- Discuss facts and try to provide source material and citations to support constructive information sharing and debate.

- Do not speculate about the motives of other participants. Stick to issues.

- Opinions are welcome. Dissenting opinions are welcome. Disinformation will get you banned. See #7 below

- When you post a link, include a brief description of why it is relevant

5. SUBJECT AREAS:

- INVESTIGATIONS: Contains original research by Black Box Voting and occasional invited guest researchers. Anyone can comment.

- FRONT LINES: Report your own research and findings here, ask questions, ask for advice

- NEWS: Share news stories here. Include a link and the main paragraphs from the story.

- STATE FORUMS: You can upload documents into the appropriate section, which builds a library of documents over time. You can also discuss local and state news and information here. When Black Box Voting administrators archive news stories and "front lines" reports, we put them into the state and location forums.

- DOCUMENT ARCHIVES: We have accumulated so many documents that we are now recommending uploading documents into the state forums, and letting the administrators of this site index them into the archive section

6. NAMING YOUR POST - SUBJECT LINES:
Whenever possible, it will help if you identify the location, month and year like this: (IL) 4/08 - And put your subject line here. This makes it easier to archive and index items as they age.

7. DISINFORMATION - We welcome newbies and old timers, opinions on the right, left and middle, but disruptors and disinformation spreaders are banned. Because we post controversial and investigative material, we attract those, especially in federal election years. The voting machine industry has also contributed its share of disinformation. Here's how we determine whether a participant is engaged in disinformation, as contrasted with simply voicing a different opinion:

- Repeats provably incorrect assertions, without citing sources or providing documentation, even after others have corrected the record.

- Combines misleading and undocumented statements with personal attacks or speculation about the motivations of other.

8. ONLINE, OPEN SOURCE RESEARCH: Black Box Voting provides thousands of documents for information sharing purposes. We encourage you to share your own and welcome analysis of items posted. Don't assume that just because it's been posted, that it's been analyzed. Sometimes we scan and post before analyzing it, to avoid becoming a bottleneck on information distribution. Here are some guidelines for posting your own research:

- Make sure you are using official sources. A common mistake, for example, is announcing a dramatic conclusion from unofficial information -- ie., news source reports of election results numbers rather than government election results.

- When researching public officials and people in the elections industry, avoid posting personal information like home address or names of family members.

- Always, always try to tie your research to original documents rather than relying on what a blogger or news reporter wrote.

9. Enjoy your participation here. Black Box Voting provides one of the liveliest, most informative, and most participatory online workspaces for those interested in voting rights.