{"id":37391,"date":"2016-03-14T16:31:51","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T21:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=37391"},"modified":"2016-03-14T18:53:57","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T23:53:57","slug":"chinese-community-poll-watchers-trained-for-tuesday-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chinese-community-poll-watchers-trained-for-tuesday-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese community poll watchers trained for Tuesday primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colin Mo <\/strong><\/p>\n

Asian American organizations have stepped up their efforts to ensure that tomorrow\u2019s Illinois primary runs smoothly for voters, especially those with language limitations.<\/p>\n

Asian Americans Advancing Justice\u2014Chicago<\/a>\u00a0 trained poll watchers Saturday both to ensure full voting rights for the Asian-American community and to hold the Chicago Board of Elections accountable by providing feedback for any problems and complaints on election day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur primary goal as poll watchers is to ensure that Asian-American voters receive the language assistance they are provided by the law, and that civil and voting rights are respected,\u201d said Joseph Jerr, 29, who has been a poll watcher for the Asian-American community in Chicago since 2012 and an instructor at the training session. \u201cWe also act as watchdogs for the Board of Elections, and keep them accountable. By taking notes and recording everything, we can use the information collected to advocate for change in the election system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerr added, \u201cIn doing this, we hope that the Board of Elections shows compliance with how the system is supposed to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poll watchers are unpaid volunteers who have to be certified by the organization they represent, and are limited to one per organization or two per candidate at each voting location. One of their responsibilities is to record issues and complaints that arise at the polling places to present to the Board of Elections, and ensure that judges are held responsible for their actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past there have been issues and complaints that weren\u2019t recorded,\u201d said Andy Kang, legal director for AAAJC. \u201cWe\u2019re asking our poll watchers to write down everything now in order to have something substantial to present to the Board of Elections, so that they can reform or change whatever these issues are in advance of the [November] presidential elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

During this past week\u2019s early voting, Chinatown had a multitude of problems that were forwarded to the Board of Elections. AAAJC hopes that by sending out more trained poll watchers they can help inform voters about their rights and deter election judges from failing to carry out their duties.<\/p>\n

During the almost two-hour-long training, the instructors explained the importance of securing and informing the fast-growing Asian-American population in Chicago about their voting rights, the key Sections 203 and 208 of the Voting Rights Act, before taking the poll watching trainees through a series of role playing scenarios. The\u00a0 scenarios were designed to show the trainees some of the problems they can expect to see on voting day, such as a judge not offering a Limited English Proficiency voter paper ballots in that voter\u2019s native language, or insisting that voters could not bring their chosen form of assistance.<\/p>\n

\"training2\"<\/p>\n

A picture of the poll watching credentials. All poll watchers must have this in order to be at the site.(Colin Mo\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

\u201cI feel pretty prepared,\u201d said Kim Nguyen after the training session, as she picked up her poll watching credentials. \u201cThis is something that appeals to me as my duty as a good citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Joseph Jerr instructing the trainees. (Colin Mo\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Colin Mo Asian American organizations have stepped up their efforts to ensure that tomorrow\u2019s Illinois primary runs smoothly for voters, especially those with language limitations. Asian Americans Advancing Justice\u2014Chicago\u00a0 trained poll watchers Saturday both to ensure full voting rights for the Asian-American community and to hold the Chicago Board of Elections accountable by providing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":267,"featured_media":37394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,585],"tags":[2317,2276,1641,2318,1198],"class_list":["post-37391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election-2016","category-winter-2016","tag-asian-americans-advancing-justice-chicago","tag-board-of-elections","tag-chinese","tag-polls","tag-voting"],"yoast_head":"\nChinese community poll watchers trained for Tuesday primary - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chinese-community-poll-watchers-trained-for-tuesday-primary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chinese community poll watchers trained for Tuesday primary - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Colin Mo Asian American organizations have stepped up their efforts to ensure that tomorrow\u2019s Illinois primary runs smoothly for voters, especially those with language limitations. Asian Americans Advancing Justice\u2014Chicago\u00a0 trained poll watchers Saturday both to ensure full voting rights for the Asian-American community and to hold the Chicago Board of Elections accountable by providing […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chinese-community-poll-watchers-trained-for-tuesday-primary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-14T21:31:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-14T23:53:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/training1-e1457832579296.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"kaolinmo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"kaolinmo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chinese-community-poll-watchers-trained-for-tuesday-primary\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chinese-community-poll-watchers-trained-for-tuesday-primary\/\",\"name\":\"Chinese community poll watchers trained for Tuesday primary - 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