Washington -- Bright balloons bob above
a sea of rainbow-colored signs as loudspeakers blare music
and announcements, and people in hats and shirts emblazoned
with slogans hand out fliers, stickers and buttons. Election
Day in the United States often arrives dressed as a carnival,
ready to attract attention and excite voter interest.
The day begins early. On November 7, in
villages, towns and cities across the United States, thousands
of volunteers will rise before dawn to lend a hand during
the U.S. midterm elections. Some will line up outside campaign
headquarters, eager to pick up the flyers, pamphlets and
signs they will distribute at polling places in the hope
of still influencing voters’ decisions.
Others will go directly to the school cafeterias,
gymnasiums and community centers that serve as polling places
to assist in checking voter rolls, setting up voting machines
and ensuring the elections are conducted in accordance with
all applicable laws and regulations.
For these dedicated volunteers, Election
Day is the culmination of months of hard work – a
day when volunteers of all ages and backgrounds enjoy the
excitement and occasional chaos of democracy in action.
VOLUNTEERS ESSENTIAL TO U.S. POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
A campaign worker’s involvement might
have started with a newspaper article, a call for help from
a community group or labor union, or a chance meeting with
a prospective candidate. It might have been an issue on
which he or she felt passionately that prompted a voter
to give a candidate more than just a vote on Election Day.
Whatever their initial reason for getting involved, these
volunteers, most of them unpaid, lend their time and expertise
to inform, educate and encourage their fellow voters to
support specific candidates, political parties or issues.
Their involvement is essential to the U.S.
election process. Most political organizations in the United
States rely heavily on unpaid volunteers to mount effective
campaigns, and both parties actively recruit volunteers
on national, state and local levels.
The Republican National Committee’s
Web site calls for volunteers to become the party’s
link to their communities and “to spread the party's
message as well as garner support for candidates and the
president's and our party's agenda.”
The Democratic National Committee offers
specific advice for the week preceding Election Day: “See
if your local campaign needs any help Thursday or Friday
night,” its Web site directs. “Since you will
be at the campaign headquarters all weekend, buy granola
bars, fruit, and water today for the campaign staff and
volunteers.”
In the United States, campaign workers perform
a variety of tasks to promote their candidates’ messages
and get out the vote:
• “Lit drops” involve
distributing by hand printed literature about a candidate
to voters’ homes, with volunteers assigned a specific
area.
• “Canvassing” involves
knocking on the doors of homes to talk with voters.
• “Mailers” are campaign
literature sent to voters’ homes, but volunteers prepare
the material -- folding letters and stuffing, stamping and
addressing envelopes.
• “Phone-banking” involves
hundreds, sometimes thousands, of phone calls to prospective
voters, promoting candidates and encouraging participation
in the election.
Months in advance of the election, volunteers
start distributing signs for voters to place in their windows
or yards and handing out literature at bus and subway stops.
They attend rallies and fundraising events; wear T-shirts
with campaign slogans and display flags and bumper stickers
on their cars – all to demonstrate support for the
candidates of their choice.
On Election Day, volunteers distribute campaign
literature and voter information at polling places and serve
as their parties’ witnesses to the legal conduct of
voting. A long day’s work (sometimes more than 12
hours at the polls) is capped by an anxious wait at a “victory”
party for news of whether their candidate won or lost the
election.
THE IMPORTANCE OF NONPARTISAN VOLUNTEERS
Many other volunteers working on Election
Day take a deliberately nonpartisan approach and work to
educate rather than influence voters.
Members of the League of Women Voters, a
nonpartisan political organization established in 1920,
are dedicated to improving government and enhancing public
policy through citizen education. The organization describes
itself as “a grassroots organization, working at the
national, state and local levels” throughout the United
States and its territories. Strictly nonpartisan, it neither
supports nor opposes candidates for office at any level
of government and acts as a respected neutral party in political
events such as candidate debates. Some of its members also
serve as election officials.
Every polling place in the United States
relies on election officials to ensure fair, orderly voting,
protect the rights of voters, and enforce voting laws and
regulations. Requirements for serving as an election official
vary from state to state, but all require officials to be
registered voters. States also prohibit candidates seeking
office, as well as members of the candidates’ families,
from serving as election officials.
Election officials must undergo training
before Election Day to become familiar with both the procedures
and the machinery for voting. They learn how to assist voters
without influencing, interfering with, or intruding upon
the right to vote freely and secretly. Above all, election
officials must be impartial. They cannot promote a specific
candidate and cannot wear or display any items that advertise
a candidate or a political party.
On November 8, the streamers will be down,
the signs removed, and all the related trappings of a spirited
campaign season packed away, as the volunteers return to
their usual routines and their newly elected leaders get
on with the business of governance. And, in offices scattered
across the nation, the planning will begin for the 2008
elections.
For additional information, see 2006
Midterm Elections.
Bridget Hunter
Washington File Staff Writer
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