This is pretty interesting: local resident Ben Mindes is working on an election monitoring project for local elections. You can volunteer, and volunteers will receive a stipend and t-shirt.
Here’s more from Ben:
New Initiative to Monitor the D.C. Elections in November
This November, there is new way for Columbia Heights residents to participate in the political process. The Observe D.C. initiative is piloting the first “sample-based” election observation to independently analyze how elections are administered in the District.
Trained volunteer observers, who receive a $50 stipend, an Observe D.C. T-shirt, official observer credentials, and a certificate of participation, will deploy to randomly sampled polling places across D.C.’s eight wards to collect data on key electoral processes throughout Election Day, including polling station set-up, access for disabled voters, voter identification practices, and secrecy of the vote.
Data from observers will be rapidly collected and transmitted to a call center on Georgetown University’s campus throughout election day and analyzed to produce concrete findings about the quality of the elections in the District.
This pilot activity takes an election observation methodology that has been used by citizen groups throughout the world for over 20 years, and introduces it to the U.S. context. Data collected from this effort will allow the D.C. Board of Elections to pursue electoral reforms based, for the first time, on independent and statistically representative data.
Outside of the District, this effort will demonstrate the feasibility of injecting election observation methodology to other electoral jurisdictions in the United States where citizens may not be as confident in the quality of election administration or electoral processes more broadly.
The initiative is being led by Columbia Heights resident and graduate student, Ben Mindes and is funded by Georgetown University’s Baker Center for Leadership and Governance. Use the google form pinned at the top of Observe D.C.’s facebook page to volunteer as an observer or call center operator and join the team today!
