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JOHNSON: Looking for a few good monitors

By Bill Johnson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 18, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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I would sign up to do it, but I figure I will be tied up on other things come Nov. 4. And I say this as a guy whose last volunteer effort was in 1964, when I raised my hand and Mrs. Casey picked me to clap the classroom erasers.

It stood out in the mass of election-related spam I receive everyday: "Poll monitors needed!" is how it read.

If there is a job that seems more and more every day absolutely in need of doing, it is poll monitoring. To read the newspapers of late, you would think this country has somehow morphed into Vladimir Putin's Russia or Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Not an afternoon passes, it seems, when yet another group or individual is busted with his or her thumb on the voting process scale. ACORN, Ohio Republicans - there isn't enough room here.

Toss it all atop a report released Thursday that says Colorado is among the least prepared states to deal with potential voting system meltdowns on Election Day, and it is enough to make even the most-civic minded among us ask, why bother?

So I called the number on the e-mail. I got Jenny Flanagan, who is executive director of Colorado Common Cause, which belongs to Just Vote Colorado, which is seeking 400 people to volunteer as "election protection workers."

I liked the sound of that. If the job came with a sash, hat or T-shirt emblazoned with that title, I might call in sick.

"Our only goal is to assist voters and make sure their votes count, and that the system works with integrity," Jenny Flanagan said, blowing right past the sash and hat talk.

The equation, she said, is simple. By protecting elections and ensuring ballot box access, it only increases voting participation by all Coloradans.

It will be the second presidential election Just Vote Colorado will monitor, the first being the 2004 Bush-Kerry race when it was called Fair Vote Colorado, a time when the then-new voter ID rules went into effect and counties began using provisional ballots for the first time.

It signed up 125 poll monitors for that election. I remember them. They mostly stood outside polling places, idly chatting with the people in line, making sure they had their ID and inquiring if they had any questions.

The job this year is little different, Jenny Flanagan said.

All of it, she said, is completely non-partisan. Volunteers are required to do two hours of training and do a minimum of two hours of monitoring on Election Day.

"The monitors simply let people know what their rights are, things like if you are in line by 7 p.m. when the polls close that you still get to vote, that if they need language assistance it must be provided. A lot of voters, we have found, are not aware of some pretty basic things."

I asked her of the need for 400 volunteers this year, when 125 did the job last election.

"New voters," she said. There will be thousands and thousands of them this year, in an election where record turnout is expected.

"We know the system is going to be tested simply by the sheer volume of voters who will turn out. We know from history that things will go wrong."

She wants to be clear on one thing. Just Vote Colorado monitors are not poll watchers. They will not be inside polling places questioning, well, everything.

"We won't be out there playing 'gotcha' with anyone," Jenny Flanagan said. "Our only goal is to be supportive of everyone who seeks to vote."

The toughest job in state government is running an election, she said. This was evidenced in 2006 when Denver switched from precinct voting to voting centers, where computer glitches and other mishaps turned thousands away at the polls.

"We were the eyes and ears on the ground in that election, and were able to post immediately on our Web site where the shortest lines were, something that enabled thousands to vote who otherwise might have been turned away," she said.

As in past elections, the group will run its Web site, justvotecolorado.org, and staff a roomful of attorneys and others who will be available to work with counties when problems arise.

At last count, she said, 125 people have signed up to volunteer.

Our conversation was coming to a close when I asked her if I should be at all worried about voting this year. Maybe I have been somehow purged from the voting rolls. How do I know if my mail-in ballot wasn't lost in the mail? My list was endless.

Jenny Flanagan laughed.

"We all should be really excited this year about voting. Elections are a time to engage our country and our leaders, our moment to speak our minds in a way that really matters."

Be prepared, she cautioned. Know where your precinct is. Know before you go, she said, is her mantra. It can only help the system run smoothly.

"The more prepared we are, the smoother the system will run and that can only benefit all of us. But go in with an open eye."

So you are not worried? I asked her.

"I'm always cautious," Jenny Flanagan said. "But this year we are trying to make it that no one is going alone when they go to the polls."

I still would like at least a sash.

johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2763.

Comments

  • October 20, 2008

    10:38 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    SlouchingTowardBoulder writes:

    "I got Jenny Flanagan, who is executive director of Colorado Common Cause, which belongs to Just Vote Colorado, which is seeking 400 people to volunteer as "election protection workers.""

    This is code which actually means "We want to intimidate any questioning of the dubious registration status of Obama voters." Common Cause states that they want "to ensure an open, honest and verifiable election" but they want nothing of the sort - they are doing absolutely nothing about the rampant abuse associated with ACORN. The "common" part of its cause is to push socialism no matter what.

    Folks, Common Cause is joined at the hip with ACORN, ACLU, Mexican Legal Defense Fund, and all the other leftist organizations. Take a look at who has been involved with Common Cause who was behind the asinine Amendment 41 from 2 years ago - Jared Polis, Ron Binz (with the PUC now), Mark Silverstein, etc.