Poll Workers | Voter Registration | Realizing a Just Democracy | Public Records Request | Voter Education
Poll Workers
While the shortage of poll workers has received extensive public attention, the training and support for poll workers is rarely scrutinized. Yet, as elections have become technologically and procedurally more complex, the training and support offered to poll workers has not kept pace. A glimpse of the chaos that can result when poll workers are not properly trained and supported can be seen in several 2006 primary elections, in Ohio, Maryland and other states. Serious electoral breakdowns have occurred in primary elections across the country even as turnout was dismally low. With much higher turnout expected in the November, 2006 General Elections, an electoral meltdown seems likely unless strong interventions are made now.
Advancement Project is committed both to arming voters with knowledge to protect them at the polls and to finding ways to hold election boards accountable to the voters for how they manage their respective polling places. We have developed state specific poll worker palm cards to serve as a quick reference of common problems that poll workers face on Election Day.
Voter Registration
Voter Protection Action Kit
This Voter Protection Action Kit is a collection of tips, examples, and resources to address election problems and to help community partners develop processes to successfully meet and exceed voter protection related goals. The Action Kit focuses on pre-Election Day activities such as ensuring that eligible citizens are able to register to vote and go to the polls and vote on Election Day. As voter protection becomes part of your ongoing work, your own “best practices” will help you remove obstacles that exclude low-income voters and voters of color from political participation in your state. If you are interested in being part of the movement to promote transparency in the election process and achieve a just democracy that protects the rights of all voters, this Voter Protection Action Kit will serve as your playbook for change.
Voter Registration Alert: Registration Verification and Completion
Throughout the country, voter registration groups are working feverishly to register new voters. In the last few weeks prior to voter registration deadlines, voter registration and voter protection organizations and coalitions should endeavor to ensure the applicants are truly making it to the rolls. There are tens of thousands of applications that are incomplete and languishing in elections offices. In each of these places elections officials are required by law to notify applicants that their applications are missing information but the dilemma is whether applicants are supplying this information. This guide is intended to assist voter protection advocates with registration verification. Each survey traces handling of incomplete applications. We hope that groups and coalitions will follow-up on applications to ensure that as many voters as possible are making it to the rolls.
Please click on the links below to download the guide by section:
- Guide Cover
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Arizona
- Florida
- Michigan
- Missouri
- Nevada
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
Tips for Voter Registration Groups on Maintaining Proof that Applications Were Turned in to Election Officials
Tips for handling voter registration applications are outlined here.Voter Registration Lock Down:“If you are not on the rolls, you will have no power at the polls.”
Many community organizations and activists will engage in voter registration drives. This guide offers some tips to ensure that eligible people who submit valid voter registration applications get on the rolls and stay on the rolls.
Voter Registration and Verification Workshop Tools:
Realizing a Just Democracy
PREPARING TO CROSS THE BRIDGE OF DEMOCRACY: TALKING POINTS FOR A NATIONAL DISCUSSION ON A BETTER DEMOCRACY
Having achieved the essential victory of Voting Rights Act reauthorization, our nation is at a critical moment in history. Much like the brave men and women standing on the Edmund Pettus bridge, embracing their fate, America has an opportunity to make the most of this moment and cross “the bridge” to a more robust and just democracy.
We can improve our Democracy at every level—federal, state, local, and individual–by addressing the following concerns: the proliferation of voter identification and so-called anti-fraud measures; voter registration regulations that limit the ability of third-party groups to bring vulnerable voters into the fold of democracy; efforts to curb civic engagement; Draconian felon disfranchisement laws in 48 states; a prevailing sense of insecurity about the right of communities of color to participate in the political process; and Department of Justice’s (DOJ) failure to enforce federal voting rights protections.
Advancement Project offers talking points to help guide national discourse and community action toward resolving issues that will expand our realization of the meaning and purpose of the Voting Rights Act.
Public Records Request
A public records request does not have to be made in writing. However, should you want to make a written request, the following letter can be used
model. Simply fill in the appropriate date, address, and salutation, and describe the records you are requesting.
Voter Education
Prepare Yourself Pennsylvania!
This Community Voter Protection Guide is an action kit for anyone—including individuals, groups, organizations, communities, and local leaders—interested in refreshing the community’s understanding of their voting rights and reinvigorating their focus on Election Day participation. The Guide is divided into four parts, allowing you to print the entire action kit or just those portions that are most suitable to your audience and your needs. Part I provides detailed answers to some of the most commonly asked questions. It helps the reader prepare for Election Day from the moment s/he decides to leave home for the polling place, to the moment s/he casts a ballot. Part II consists of a true/false Voter Protection Quiz that can be used to encourage voters to self-test their familiarity with their voting rights. It also serves as a powerful, interactive teaching tool with large audiences. Part III contains voter protection practice scenarios that serve as a great partner to the Voter Protection Quiz. The practice scenarios help voters develop their voting rights skills. Part IV is filled with a number of Community Action Steps to promote understanding of the electoral process and support community involvement in that process. It also contains tools for promoting accountability by local election officials to the communities and voters they serve.