Voter Education and Outreach Subcommittee

Registrar of Voters
Voter Education and Outreach Subcommittee Meeting
Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 4:00 p.m.
Registrar of Voters’ Office, Room 121 Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Voter Education and Outreach Subcommittee was held on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. at the Registrar of Voters’ office.

Present were: Greg Brockbank, Steve Burdo, Ericka Erickson, Shirley Graves, Chris Jones and Lupita Figueredo. Elaine Ginnold and Maureen Hogan were present from the Registrar of Voters’ Office.

The Registrar of voters described its program to distribute voter registration affidavits to various locations throughout the county. The department distributed affidavits to the following locations: High Schools, Colleges, Marin Housing Authority properties and various locations in West Marin and Hamilton. The Registrar of Voters has a contract with the League of Women Voters to distribute voter registration affidavits to libraries, city/town clerks, fire and police stations, DMV, and retirement centers. One member of the League distributed the affidavits to elementary schools.

Elaine Ginnold introduced Lupita Figueredo to the subcommittee. Lupita works with the Spanish language media recording PSA’s for radio and TV, the G-Channel, and Channel 26 with election information about deadlines and requirements for voting.

Ms. Ginnold reported that the ROV has an agreement with Grassroots Leadership Network to provide voter education to minority language and low income voters. Activities include instructing voters on how to mark the ballot, the voting process, and where to find their polling places. Grassroots will be staffing telephones during the days before the election and on Election Day to answer questions from Spanish and Vietnamese speaking voters. Phone numbers are published in the Voter Information Pamphlet.

Other outreach activities: Univision TV (Channel 14) will be conducting a voter registration drive in the Canal area in October and has asked the Registrar to staff a table where voters can come to register to vote. Lupita and ROV staff will be there to register voters. The ROV was present at the Canal Welcome Center Festival on Sept. 7, where Lupita was also the MC for the event.

Ms. Ginnold provided examples of some of the publications for voters produced by the Registrar of Voters’ Office such as the Voter Information Pamphlet; and ad for the Marin 101 which will be published in late October; the Spanish language version of the ROV Guide to Voting brochure, and a flier that will be put into the rent statements of residents in Marin City Housing Authority properties.

The committee discussed the mailings that voters registered in the Democratic Party are receiving from the RNC. These mailings are happening in other counties as well and voters are upset about them. The ROV will be meeting with the post office to discuss this on Friday, Sept. 19.

The Committee discussed various ways to reach out to voters, including compiling a list of e-mail addresses and sending out informational newsletters. Lupita and Erica will work together on compiling an e-mail list as time permits.

Chris Jones reported that she has assigned volunteers to register voters, including at the St. Vincent’s dining room and that one volunteer works specifically with Spanish speaking clients.

Steve Burdo suggested involving the youth perspective on either this subcommittee and/or the Election Advisory Committee. Ms.Ginnold to follow up on this suggestion.

There being no further business, the committee adjourned at 5:10 p.m.