ELECTION PROTECTION VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
EXPLAINED
POLLWORKERS
Orange County really needs poll workers to work at the polls on Election Day. You learn how to conduct elections and have a hands-on experience helping voters to sign in, and cast their ballots. The day begins at 6:00 a.m. when you must be at the polling place to set up and ends by 9 pm, after you help close the polls, account for each ballot, and pack up all supplies. You earn a small payment for this.
First, call in to the Registrar’s office (714-567-7600) and they will assign you to a precinct. Then take the L.A. County poll worker training available at many convenient locations all over the County, on many days each week, prior to the election.
We need as many poll workers as possible to be our eyes and ears on the ground. Please plan to fill out POLL MONITOR INCIDENT REPORTS to provide feed back about your experiences at the polls. And if you are interested, you are welcome to participate in our poll monitor training, to learn about what sort of things to watch for on Election Day.
Citizens who have less time available on Election Day can monitor (watch) elections at polling sites countywide. You can choose to simply watch all the activities at your own polling place in 3 or 4 hour shifts taking turns with a couple of neighbors, or, travel to some “hot spot,” neighborhoods where voter suppression might happen. (We will suggest precincts you could monitor.)
Poll monitors keep written records on POLL MONITOR INCIDENT REPORTS where you briefly describe problems you witness, including issues of: voter registration, ballots, machines, poll workers, intimidation, access, language, etc. With permission poll monitors may use cell phone and video cameras, to record incidents. We will compile these reports and send them to our election officials, the LA County Board of Supervisors, and to the Secretary of State’s office and distribute the data to the media – mainstream & alternative.
Beginning in September, we will hold training sessions for poll monitoring, in person and via conference calls. When you sign up to be a poll monitor, or via http://www.workthevotela.org/join.php we will make sure you know the training times and dates.
VIDEO THE VOTE
For Video
the Vote information, see videothevote.org. It is a national campaign, and of
great importance. You can upload all of your Election Day videos at
videothevote.org to get them posted on the national site. Video the Vote videos have been responsible
for arrests as well as changes in election procedures, and help show what
really happens on Election Day in our country. The video reports provide one
more form of transparency, which is the only way to attain truly democratic
elections. If you are planning to carry
a video camera on Election Day and have further questions please email matthew@cotam.org, or call Matt Gerbasi’s
cell phone: (323) 482-2587.
Citizen Exit Polls
Since there may be no national exit polls, citizen exit polls may be the only way citizens will know how voters voted. We will train you to help conduct citizen exit polls to make sure that our votes are counted accurately. You invite voters, after they have voted, to vote again on a very short paper ballot that voters put into a sealed ballot box, in the way the professional exit polls are conducted. The exit poll ballot is secret and the voter participation is voluntary. On election night, the volunteer teams count these ballots publicly (in a restaurant) and compare their results to the election night results from election headquarters. These citizen exit polls have been conducted in 10 states in 2006, were done in 2 primaries, and may be funded nationally. www.protectcaliforniaballots.org