[statecom] Volunteers needed to act as presidential primary day voting problem contact people

[Jamie O'Keefe]

[If you are interested, please email me soon so I can get your phone
number into the newsletter.]

The contact would talk with the voter who is encountering problems,
back them up with the polling person as to the voter's right and keep
track of the calls and problem polling place.

The League of Women Voters/Sec. of the Commonwealth has a web page
with Voter Rights (in four languages) at:

http://www.lwvma.org/web2/Rights%26Responsibilities/Voters'%20Bill%20of%20Rights.htm

The most likely problem is that our voters won't get our ballot
because the poll workers were misinformed.  One issue is that our
ballots are on paper and not cardstock and are counted by hand, not
read into the machines.  Poll workers seem to get confused by this.
The response is to inform the voter that they have a right to the GRP
ballot, possibly talk with the poll worker to make sure the voter gets
a ballot and note the town/city and ward (city only) and precinct of
the polling place.  If the problem cannot be solved, then we will
escalate it to someone who can call the sec. of the commonwealth's
office to fix it.

Jamie

On 1/9/08, Emily Lewis <lewis.emily at comcast.net> wrote:
> What does the contact do?
> Emily
> "A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say
> of war: 'This way of settling differences is not just.' This business
> of…sending men (and women) home from dark and bloody battlefields
> physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be
> reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year
> after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of
> social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
>   Martin Luther King, Jr (April 4, 1967 speech at Riverside Church in
> NYC)
>
> On Jan 9, 2008, at 1:53 PM, Jamie O'Keefe wrote:
>
> > Hii,
> >
> > In 2004 we received numerous complaints from our voters about
> > encountering problems voting in our presidential primary.  These
> > problems included being told they were not able to vote or being told
> > that they could only vote in either the Democratic or Republican
> > primaries.  I expect to see these problems again during this
> > presidential primary.
> >
> > It is our duty assist our voters when they encounter such problems and
> > to document these problems so we can get the commonwealth's election
> > division to fix them in future elections.
> >
> > While having one phone number for everyone to call is a good thing, it
> > would be better to decentralize this task by region or county.
> >
> > I am asking all state committee members to volunteer to be a contact
> > person for your region or county. or to suggest a non-statecom party
> > member who I can ask.
> >
> > We will advertise volunteers' phone numbers, but not  names, in the
> > upcoming party newsletter and on the web site.  All such listings will
> > ask that all voters write these numbers down and will include a
> > listing of a voter's rights.  Additionally, I will send you a listing
> > of voting rights and procedures so you can assist our voters should
> > they call.
> >
> > While we don't need everyone to volunteer, having one person per
> > county would be great.  I know folks are busy, but it is only one day
> > and would greatly assist our voters and the cause of voting rights.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Jamie
> > --
> > James O'Keefe
> > Membership Director
> > Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts
> > _______________________________________________
> > StateCom mailing list
> > StateCom at green-rainbow.org
> > http://www.green-rainbow.org/mailman/listinfo/statecom
> >
> _______________________________________________
> StateCom mailing list
> StateCom at green-rainbow.org
> http://www.green-rainbow.org/mailman/listinfo/statecom
>


-- 
peace,

Jamie
--
James O'Keefe
www.jamesokeefe.org