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Group Encourages Using A Camera When Going To The Polls

LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) - Not only is Colorado one of the important swing states in the presidential rate, the Wall Street Journal says Arapahoe County is one of the big three swing counties.

The others counties are around Cincinnati and Daytona Beach, Fla. That means a lot of national attention on Tuesday.

A nonpartisan group is encouraging voters in Arapahoe County and across the nation to document problems at the polls on their cellphones anyway they can and upload those issues to Twitter or their livestreaming sites. For those who can't, they plan to have people at certain polls who can.

Sache Heppell is a professional photographer, but on Election Day he will become a "volunteer citizen journalist." His camera will be rolling at a polling site in Arapahoe County in case voters have problems.

"Like, oh my gosh, I've been standing in line for two hours. I'm not even going to vote anymore," Heppell said.

Video the Vote, a nonpartisan group, says they will have 100 people documenting the voting process in Colorado and 1,300 nationwide. They're concentrated in states like Colorado and areas like Arapahoe and Jefferson counties due to the nature of how close the presidential race is.

"If there's people there are trying to influence someone's vote inside the polling place," Heppell said. "I'm just looking out for anything that can be off."

A clip by Video the Vote cites past election problems in Florida as a reason why they vow to give frustrated poll workers and voters a voice on Tuesday.

There have been over a dozen reports of voting malfunctions in Colorado with nine from Pueblo and three from Adams County. Secretary of State Scott Gessler says those reports have not been proven.

"We actually test all of equipment before the election to make sure it's properly tabulating votes," Gessler said. "We don't just sort of deploy it and hope it works."

Denver voter Mark Bond says a camera can keep things honest.

"Because people would know that they can't get away with anything, so they won't try it," Bond said.

Sache's camera will stream live into a Video the Vote monitor site. Dispatch teams are ready to go wherever needed.

"This is a critical election, I want to be part of this. This is history in the making," Heppell said.

Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder Nancy Doty says she doesn't recall hearing about the group Video the Vote, but says there are so many that it's hard to keep up with it all
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The hashtag for those who want to follow the process on Twitter is #VideoTheVote.

LINK: Video the Vote

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