Volunteers will monitor polls and answer hotline calls on Election Day
—By Lori Criag
Smooth, problem-free elections don’t just happen, as evidenced in Bush v. Gore.
USC Law students are joining the ranks of countless volunteers who are helping to ensure that Southern California voters overcome obstacles to the ballot box on Tuesday, Nov. 4. They are teaming up with IMPACT, the law student branch of Election Protection, the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition. As legal volunteers, students will educate voters about their rights and monitor polling locations on what is expected to be a record-turnout election night.
“Youth participation in politics is an issue that is always at the forefront and, unfortunately, mostly in a negative light,” said Naomi Ages ’10, who is leading the USC Law student effort. “This is a really positive step students can take to get involved in a really important aspect of the political process, educate themselves about an issue they may only have a basic understanding of, and prove to themselves and the public that young people are not apathetic — especially in such a critical election.”
Students will help field calls to IMPACT’s voter hotline (1-866-Our-Vote) and join mobile teams of “on call” legal volunteers that will be deployed to problem polling places as needed.
Students need to sign up prior to Election Day at the IMPACT or Election Protection website, and must attend a training session – one will be held at USC Law on Friday, Oct. 24, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
“We will equip [volunteers] with the basic level of knowledge to address problems as they come up on Election Day,” said Elisabeth J. Neubauer, an associate with Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and Election Protection volunteer.
Sometimes problems are a matter of mis-information and sometimes they’re a matter of intent, Neubauer said. In previous elections, Neubauer said she has heard of voters who walk away without casting their ballot because they were told that they needed identification or that they were supposed to vote on a different day.
“We’re expecting record turnout, so we anticipate a high volume of calls to our hotline,” Neubauer said. The group also expects long lines at polling places and a shortage of ballots.
Professor Kareem Crayton, an election law expert, says that volunteering during an election “is one of the most significant things you can do as a young attorney.”
“It’s the one point in our democracy where everybody has an equal chance to determine who governs,” he said. “This is a place where you can do direct legal service and see direct results.”
Himself a past Election Day poll-watcher in the Department of Justice and for the Legal Defense Fund, Crayton said students will learn a lot and help residents of some of the most underserved communities of Los Angeles, including the neighborhoods surrounding the USC campus.
“You want to give the opportunity for people to choose their elected representatives. That’s beyond partisan politics,” Crayton said. “There’s a larger stake in all of this. One of the things we have to do as members of a democratic society is make sure the rules are applied fairly.”
Law student volunteers gain a real-world, practical application of the skills and training they learn in law school, Ages said.
“It's also a really excellent way of getting students involved in and excited about pro bono work,” she said. “Protecting voting rights is not a partisan issue, and so it's a really easy way for students, no matter what their political inclination, to help protect the democratic process — a function whose importance should not be overlooked.”
Election Protection operates in all 50 states. It is a coalition of more than 100 partners at the national, state and local levels, led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. For more information about Election Protection and the 1-866-Our-Vote hotline, visit http://www.866OurVote.org.
Students also are invited to participate in poll monitoring with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC). The group’s volunteers will be visiting areas of L.A. with high minority (predominantly Asian) populations and conducting exit polls to find out whether voters encountered any problems. Training for the APALC poll monitoring was held this week; for more information, contact Eugene Lee at APALC.
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