[Peace] why you should consider serving as an election judge

[Robert Naiman]

If you live in Champaign County, and if you voted for a Democrat or a
Republican in the March primary, (e.g. if you voted for Bernie Sanders or
Hillary Clinton), and if you are not currently a candidate for elected
office or currently a precinct committeeperson, then *please consider
serving as a Champaign County election judge*. (If you voted for a Democrat
or Republican presidential candidate in the March primary, then for the
purposes of Illinois election law, you are considered a "Democrat" or
"Republican" respectively.)



*Key facts:*

- you get paid $200 for your time and service.

- you have to attend a 4 hour training conducted by the county clerk. The
$200 is intended to compensate you both for your time and service on
Election Day and for the time spent attending the training.

- there is a preference for people serving in their own precinct, but not
all election judges in a precinct are necessarily from that precinct.



*Why you should consider doing this if your other commitments allow it:*



Election judges help ensure that elections run smoothly and efficiently and
that every eligible voter who wants to vote is allowed to vote and has
whatever assistance they need in order to do that. So, you can think of an
election judge as a citizen volunteer who helps protect the right to vote.



An election involves a lot of moving parts and a lot can go wrong even if
nobody has particularly bad intentions. A motivated and engaged election
judge can help avoid problems. A simple example: in a high turnout
election, a particular polling place might not have enough ballots, or
enough of the right ballots, which means they could run out, which means
that prospective voters could have to stand around waiting for new ballots
to be delivered to the polling place from the County Clerk's office. A
proactive election judge can notice that there are not enough ballots and
help agitate to get new ballots delivered before the polling place runs out
so that the voters' user experience is not affected.



Such a mundane act is part of protecting the vote. If citizens do what
they're supposed to and show up to vote, we want the system to do what it's
supposed to and make their user experience pleasant and efficient.



If this is something you think you might be willing and able to do, please
reply to this email for more info. And please feel free to pass this note
along with my email address (naiman at justforeignpolicy.org) as a contact.
Everything here is nonpartisan public information.


Thanks for all you do to help make democracy work for all Americans,


RN
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