This guide is intended to clarify the registration process and help you learn how to get involved and make your vote count. And remember: the deadline to register to vote for the upcoming election in Pennsylvania is May 1st, so if you haven't already registered, please do so as soon as possible. You can get started here. .
Need another reason to vote? Look at how underrepresented your age bracket has been for over thirty years of voting!
We are having a national poll worker shortage problem. And Pennsylvania is no exception. This can cause major problems, including having polling locations being consolidated, which could cause longer lines, not to mention people having to travel greater distances to vote. The pandemic has contributed in major ways as well: health concerns for older individuals who may have normally been interested in volunteering to be poll workers, fears around voting in person increased by the possibility of overcrowding, proper spacing, PPE, etc. We need all hands on deck on this. Perhaps some of those hands are yours!
Law students are uniquely situated to be of serious significance to help out for reasons well-stated in this article, but we'd like to emphasize a main point here:
"Law students are in a particularly strong position to offer assistance as election workers because the analytical skills taught in law schools can be particularly helpful when difficult voter questions arise concerning provisional ballots or other complex procedures."
Did you know that Kline law students can receive pro bono credit for working at the polls on election day?
Students who wish to receive pro bono credit for their work as poll workers must:
All students who are selected by their counties to be poll workers will receive training from experts at the Voter Project as well as their county. Poll workers will also be provided with personal protective equipment.
See here for details: https://drexel.edu/law/about/news/articles/overview/2020/September/pro-bono-election-day-polls/
Thanks to Robert Irving, Yolanda D. Ingram, David S. Cohen, Amy Boss, Donna Gerson, Anil Kalhan, Sara Kulp, Analisa Goodmann, Brian Crooks, Emily Zimmerman, Rashida T. West, and Becka Rich.
Here's what some of the law faculty and staff have to say on the subject of voting:
David Haendler, Research & Instructional Services Librarian
phone: 215-571-4776
Lindsay Steussy, Research and Instructional Services Librarian
phone: 215-571-4774