Voter Services Needs Your Help!

Voter Services Needs Your Help!

Yard signs, Your Vote Matters and Get the Facts Before You Vote
Type: 
News

July 2020

__________________________________________

August 2020 Update

by Martha Goralka

It’s a whole new world! I don’t remember which Disney movie sang that refrain, but for Voter Service Candidates Forums, and Pros & Cons, it is so appropriate and exciting.
  • The League is partnering with CCTV, the Contra Costa Elections Department, Contra Costa Library, and the League of Women Voters of West Contra Costa to broadcast and record Candidate Round Tables. Zoom meetings are scheduled for September 16, 17, and 18.
  • We will be holding forums for 20 races covering as many communities.
  • LWV Diablo Valley is hosting additional forums for some school board races with CCTV and the libraries on September 29 and October 1.
  • We are also partnering with Clayton’s AAUW (September 28th) and the Orinda Association (October 8th) for other Zoom forums – with more in possible planning stages.

Send questions for candidates to be used at the candidate forums and recorded roundtables to voter.services [at] lwvdv.org.

There are opportunities for many volunteers with these virtual forums and roundtables. We need:
  • Technical coordinators - Zoom experts to let candidates into the “waiting room” and to handle the forum logistics as candidates speak
  • Timers – to indicate when a candidate’s time for speaking is running out
  • Moderators - to ask questions and graciously remind candidates when their time has expired.

Pros and Cons presentations are also being done virtually this year. Kay James and Janet Thomas are working on scripts, even as you read this, and they will be partnering with St. Mary’s College students to produce videos of presentations. They can also use other volunteers to help, if you are interested.

If you want to help with any of these voter service activities, please contact us at voter.services [at] lwvdv.org. I know I can count on each of you to Empower Voters and Make Democracy Work!

__________________________________________

July 2020

by Suzan Requa, Voter Services Co-Chair

An Ally can be anyone or any organization who supports you to achieve something for mutual benefit. Allies are people/organizations united by a common cause.

For this 2020 election it is more important than ever to strengthen our community connections, focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion to ensure the highest level of informed voter participation. We know that peer-to-peer engagement is the most successful motivator of voter turnout.

So, we will be focused on expanding our ally base and working with them to learn their needs for voter services and to foster a combination of their leadership and ours in the delivery of those voter services.

Your volunteer help is needed! Would you like help with outreach to connect with non-profits or community organizations with diverse membership in East County?

The pandemic is driving us to provide all voter services online. Fortunately, Zoom webinars, videos on YouTube, Contra Costa County website, CCTV, our LWVDV website, Voter’s Edge, and social media are more widely used and will continue to be useful methods to communicate during this health crisis. We are discussing how to best reach our Diablo Valley communities with information about onlineresources including Contra Costa County Voter Registration, Voter’s Edge, state ballot measure Pros and Cons, and Candidate Forums.  

We’ll plan our school outreach activities once decisions are made on school start and what methods will be supported by teachers in high schools and colleges.

Your help is needed to promote and deliver Voter Registration and Voter Information services through Zoom. Training will be provided! Teams of 2 or 3 volunteers will participate.

Additionally, we are considering options for those neighborhoods with usually lower voter turnout or with voters who may not be internet users or simply still want to use paper voter registration forms. Phone banking may be important in this effort.

Finally, we are planning for National Voter Registration Day and will be providing you more information about that effort.

We will be contacting you if you have expressed an interest in Voter Registration through the membership survey or have participated previously. If you want to ensure your participation, email voter.services [at] lwvdv.org or call 925-283-2235 and leave your contact information and voter registration volunteering as part of the message.

We look forward to working with you in this unique online voter registration and voter information effort for the November 2020 election.

This article is related to which committees: 
LWV Diablo Valley Voter Services Committee
League to which this content belongs: 
Diablo Valley