Volunteer« Thread Started on Jul 21, 2004, 11:22pm » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------VolunteerOne of the most important lessons we have learned from past elections is the importance of energizing and mobilizing the vote. Martin Luther King put it so well, "Voting is more than a badge of citizenship and dignity, it is an effective tool for change."The Voting Rights Institute needs volunteers in order to implement its goals to educate voters on the importance of voting and the process of casting a ballot, giving all citizens the tools they need to navigate the political process.To deal with some of the problems facing voters this fall, the bipartisan League of Women Voters has recommended the following steps be implemented to ensure that no eligible citizen is disenfranchised. We agree with many of their conclusions and would encourage the RNC to join us in support of the implementation of these procedures:- Ensure that voter registration applications or forms are processed in a timely fashion prior to Election Day. State and local election officials should be encouraged to update their voter registration lists and to maintain open lines of communication between polling sites and the registrar's central office. - Provide timely notice to any citizen who has been purged from a state felon list so he or she may register to vote prior to Election Day if they are eligible. The list should be made public to ensure that these citizens are notified prior to the statewide deadline for voter registration. We also encourage state and local officials to cut off or stop any purging after August 1, 2004. - Every citizen should be educated on what form, if any, of ID they may be required to produce at their polling place and this information should be widely published prior to Election Day. - Educate citizens on the new voting systems that will be used in their local jurisdiction this fall. We also encourage that security standards be set to maintain the integrity of our voting systems. - Every polling site in America should have provisional ballots available to citizens who may show up at the wrong site. We also encourage a non-discriminatory process for issuing and counting these provisional ballots. We need your help to achieve these goals and others. If you are interested in being a part of the DNC's Voting Rights Institute voter protection team please sign up by filling out our volunteer form. (http://www.democrats.org/vri/volunteer/index.html)Your efforts will ensure that everyone who is eligible to vote will have their vote count. Don't hesitate -- sign up now! And remember: every vote counts in 2004!