Even if it is kicking and screaming, you now have the chance to help bring the City Government one step closer to the modern age, by forcing them to provide all citizens with access to electronic voting results. But, first, for those who have not been following this, here is a quick recap of where we are:

• The City Commissioners publish election returns online, behind a firewall, where only a small group of people can view them.
• I requested a password, which they denied, stating that their system only allows 150 people to be online at once. (They also mentioned they are getting in a new shipment of slide rulers, and that their dictaphone needs repairs.)
• Vince Fumo alone has 10 of those 150 passwords
• The City Solicitor granted my appeal, ruling that password protecting election results for your buddies is in violation of any notion of open government and the PA Open Records law. So, I have my password. Maybe they thought this would end the whole thing? If so, they severely underestimated how annoying I am.

Does me having a password really get us anywhere closer to the goal of open access for everyone? Not really, but, the ruling from the City Solicitor does, and that is where you come in. Today, in partnership with Hallwatch and with help from Philly for Change, we are launching a faxbank, where with the City Solicitor's ruling in hand, you can send in your own open records request to the City, asking for your own password.

Here is the basic idea: If the City Commissioners want to plead technological incompetence, we are going to use the ruling from the City Solicitor to force their hand. If we can get 25, or 50, or 100 people to request their own passwords, the Commissioners will be forced to make a decision: Take the small, easy step of putting election results online for all Philadelphians, or take away electronic access for their buddies.

Which do you think they will choose?

But, this only will work if you help. So, can you take 2 minutes and to open up Philadelphia government, and then spread the word? Click here, and lets get this done.

Election results are not supposed to be a perk for the connected few. And they should not fall under a constituent service. This. is. a. democracy. These. are. election. results.

Filling out a request is incredibly easy, and the City has to respond to you within 30 days. Please fill one out, spread the word to any and all who might be interested, and of course, let us know how the office responds.

I thought I would update everyone on where things stand with the crazy notion of letting everyone see election results online.

First, a month or so ago, I appealed the City's decision to deny me a password- the decision that gave us the magical 150 person limit for viewing electronic returns. (The appeal was with the Solicitor; next step was to Court.) In that appeal I also requested additional information, including how much the City charges for access to election results, how they decide who gets passwords for free, public notice they have put out to let people know that they can ask for a password to view results, and a list of who has these magical 150 passwords.

The City broke down my request into two streams: My new request for information from the Commissioners' Office, and my appeal of the initial decision.

The first response I got back was about the new pieces of information, and largely refused to answer my questions, including how much they actually charge. However, the one piece of information they did provide was the one piece I thought they would not: a list of who has these passwords. That is mostly what the Daily News focused on: the people who have access to voting returns, while the average citizen does not. And yes, it is pretty bizarre that they deny an average citizen access to results, while giving Fumo's Office ten of 150 passwords.

Then, late last week, on the same day the Daily News story came out, the Solicitor responded to and granted my appeal, and ruled that the Commissioners Office had to give me a password.

So, the bottom line is, I have a password and you don't. Suckers! Now, I am done with this whole annoying ordeal. But, in positive news for you all, I will rent access to the password for ten dollars a day, plus four chocolate chip cookies.

Anyway, I used the magical password to log in, to see what all the fuss was about. It took about two seconds to see what the problem was/is. Basically, those 150 passwords are for users to log into the actual voting system software. No one in the public needs that- we just need them to export the data so that the public can see it. I also asked YPP user ELP to take a look at it, knowing he is a computer guy. And, as I assumed he would, ELP quickly came up with a number of fixes. Additionally, in terms of whether this is all feasible for the City to do, he pointed me to this, from the website of the company the City uses, describing the benefits of their product:

- Easy to export results to other media or systems including the World Wide Web.

Um, right.

So, where do we go from here? Well, that is coming. The granting of the appeal was an important step, but in reality, just a small one. At the end of the day, we still don't yet have public access to the results. I will have more on how you can help very soon.