Join Voter’s Edge California as a Local Coordinator for Berkeley Albany Emeryville. This job can be done by one person or a team of two or more.   Voters Edge is a  joint project of the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and MapLight*

Interested in helping to build a comprehensive, one-stop online source for nonpartisan voting information? Want to get to know the candidates and elections officials in your county? Voter’s Edge California (VEC) is the next generation of the League’s Smart Voter. It marries the League’s powerful coverage of election contests, candidates, and ballot measures with MapLight’s deep expertise in campaign finance, public data, and technology.

Time Commitment
Training will be in February 2018; the  county coordinator also gives continuing assistance. The amount of time the job takes depends on the particular election, the number of contests and candidates in your League’s territory, and the candidates’ responsiveness. It is hard to quantify, but other volunteers attest that the work is deeply rewarding and they are able to get much of it done in off hours. Most of the work will occur from April through E-Day in June and then again from August through E-Day in November.

Participate on the Alameda County Team for LWV Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville
Local Coordinators (LoCos) work on a team managed by County Coordinators (CoCos).Our CoCo is Bonnie Hamlin.

Interested? Contact Phyllis Gale at voterservices@lwvbae.org, Nancy Bickel at nomcom@lwvbae.org, and Sharon Stone, the state coordinator, sstone@lwvbae.org.

Job Description

As a LoCo you will be assigned either a set of candidates to work with–most likely candidates in Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville plus some candidates for regional offices.  CoCos will structure the workload to suit the team, taking into account your interests and unique talents. While it is helpful for the LoCo to be comfortable working online (plenty of training will be provided!), tasks may be divvied it up in a variety of ways and computer skills may not be essential. For example, one person may do the candidate outreach and another work with computers. Or one person may send out the initial letters of invitation, another manage ballot measures, another make the follow-up calls to the candidates, etcetera.

Engage with your County’s Elections Office
Develop a working relationship with staff in your county’s elections office in order to:
􀁸 Request a version of the certified candidate list that includes candidate email addresses, phone numbers and/or postal addresses. This list is often referred to as the media list in contrast to the public list which is posted on the elections officials website; and
􀁸 Negotiate the inclusion of a form letter describing VEC to candidates who file to run for office. This letter is often included in a standard packet that elections offices provide to everyone who files to run.

Discover Sources to Keep Voters Informed
􀁸 Add extended ballot measure data to the site that may not automatically upload with the contest data from the elections office;
􀁸 Post information about candidate and elections events sponsored by your League and other community organizations, links to relevant newspaper articles, and other value added elections content; and
􀁸 Provide current “evergreen” information (registrar of voter contact info, links to local news web sites, links to city web sites, etc.).

Collaborate with your Local League(s): mainly LWVBAE
􀁸 Coordinate with local Leagues to draft and approve candidate questions;
􀁸 Encourage your League leaders to publicize the VEC site in your League’s territory;
􀁸 Advocate for the placement of Voter’s Edge widgets on the web sites of community organizations; and
􀁸 Mention VEC at candidate forums, Pros & Cons presentations, and in meetings of community groups. Support your Local Candidates
􀁸 Send letters of invitation and instructions for using VEC to all candidates for office who will appear on the ballot in your League’s territory. You will be provided withtraining, support from the Operations Team, letter templates, and sets of clear instructions for both you and candidates.
􀁸 Follow up with those candidates via phone and Email to make sure they received the invitation, know how to proceed, and to encourage them to participate in VEC.
􀁸 Check at least once a day after sending out the invitations to see if candidates have submitted information and are waiting for you to review it for approval.
􀁸 Read and determine whether the candidate
submissions have met our minimum requirements and
have not abused the terms of participation. These
terms will be clearly documented for your ease of
reference.
􀁸 Approve candidate submissions or communicate with the candidates to let them know why their material cannot be approved without modifications.