Registrar of Voters
Voter Education and Outreach Subcommittee Meeting
September 11, 2006, 4:30 p.m.
Minutes
A meeting of the Election Advisory Committee’s Subcommittee on Voter Education and
Outreach to Low Voter Turnout Populations was held on September 11, 2006, at 4:30
p.m. in the Registrar of Voters’ office. Present were: Anne Layzer, Greg Brockbank,
Donald Pino, Shirley Graves, Steve Burdo from Grassroots, and Elaine Ginnold,
Registrar of Voters.
Subcommittee members discussed the need to identify the locations of low turnout
populations and determine the types of outreach and education needed to increase voter
participation in these precincts.
Ms. Ginnold to get a report of the turnout by precinct from the past 3-5 elections and
identify the 10-20 lowest and highest turnout precincts (high and low turnout will be
measured by the average turnout in those elections). The Subcommittee will look at high
turnout precincts to determine the factors that could influence turnout in those areas and
the factors that could be exported to precincts with lower turnout.
The Subcommittee also expressed interest in determining the minority language needs for
election information and targeting those communities where such assistance is indicated.
Ms. Ginnold will see if census data can be made available by precinct and ethnicity to
determine the locations of populations in the County that may need language assistance.
Other actions the Subcommittee discussed are:
Review the ROV website and make suggestions for enhancing it.
Put phone number on election material for persons who speak Spanish and Vietnamese to
call to get assistance with the material. Provide translated information on deadlines.
Train bilingual people to train voters in their communities.
Try different ways of reaching low turnout populations, such as posters, going door to
door, mailings; providing information at public events and churches. Grassroots may be
able to incorporate a question on the need for voter education and assistance in their
survey.
Ms. Ginnold distributed a letter from the Secretary of State regarding mock elections that
the SOS will be conducting in schools before the November election. Subcommittee
members suggested reaching out to the Youth Commission on mock elections and the
student poll worker program; talking to superintendents about mock elections; and seeing
if Social Studies teachers are incorporating information on elections in their Civics
classes.
Subcommittee members agreed to gather information on the need for voter outreach and
education and then to develop a plan during the first quarter of 2007 that could be
implemented by the November 2007 election.
The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday,
October 4, at 4:30 p.m. at the Registrar of Voters’ Office.