Tried to help a student to register to vote the other day....

[geiger]

only to find out the local board of elections had no downloadable form on their website, and no link to the SOS website. When they told me over the phone to check the SOS website, I thought the form would jump right out at me, and had to call them for help to get to the right spot on the assanine over-crowded home page. Then I found out, the student had also just gotten her driver's license in the same building that the local BOE is located, and hadn't been asked or given a form to vote. I was barking like a rabid dog after that one. I just can't believe the incompetence I am seeing. Still no fucking training, still no outreach, let's just revert to antiquated, proven bad ORC technology and waste the taxpayer's money on that. INCOMPETENCE, I say. I am so pissed off today, and I hate to be negative. I want people to stay engaged, to have hope, to make a fucking difference.:rant:

[rg302200]

1. I know our pain

I called my local BOE for advice on a election law and they had no idea. They refereed me to the SOS homepage but much like you I gave up on finding my information after I damn near went blind sorting through the mess. So instead I called the BOE of the county I work in and they gave me all the information I needed to know. I guess that goes to show me if I want answers I have to call one of the FEW Democrat controlled counties in my area for answers!

[geiger]

4. Not in the last election, but in the two before that, I actually went in and showed BOE staff

how to do voter "queries" so that I could get the lists I needed to do mailings and phone calls. Noone had trained them to do it, and the only reason I knew how was training that Frances Strickland gave when Denny White (who GOT it) was ODP Chair. Denny White knew what he was doing; give alll the technolgical sources available to all the counties available, but, alas, his erm was cut short.

[AngryOldDem]

2. Can voter registration be done door-to-door?

That's how I registered, long back in the dark ages. A Tony Hall volunteer, out canvassing, also had voter registration forms, and I did it all without leaving my house.

[geiger]

3. The rules, election before last at least, had changed so that any one of us

could accept a registration application ourselves and turn it in. And, now that one is required to show proof of address when voting, it would still seem to make sense, except that the information available online and the help available telephone is so lame, I can't tell. I am really busy with a real job and life these days, so I haven't had time to do the research, but I wish someone else would. This is ridiculous.

[LiberalFighter]

5. The part about the BMV not asking if the driver wanted to register to vote

should be a letter to the editor pointing out the problem.

[geiger]

6. good idea

[Riley133]

7. Did you try any public library? I looked a couple of times and didn't see you mention it.

It's pretty painless there - and quick.

[geiger]

8. I'm a librarian by training, but the point of this post

was to point out how BOE and SOS operations seem to be lacking...at least in training their representatives.

[geiger]

9. Heard just today, after the fact, that another student also attempted

to registered to vote in time for the primaries, and the local BOE website was so confusing (they have an absentee ballot up that one can download, but not a voter registration form), this student thought they still had time to get the forms in until right before the election (they had never voted before).....

I am just infuriated; there is no other way to describe I feel about an SOS pursuing antiquated voting technology while people still don't know, and aren't getting the right information, to help get them out there to vote to begin with.

I think we are in for a long night March 4, too, by the way.