{news} training for 3d party election moderators 10/6 in Hartford

Fri Sep 18 13:29:50 EDT 2009

I'm forwarding the invitation below from Urania Petit via Martha Kelly.  
Urania is the Working Families Party registrar of voters in Hartford.  I 
agree with Martha that it's an excellent opportunity for anyone 
considering running for Registrar or working as a moderator in the 
future.  I'd like to attend but am not free on October 6 for the 
training (or November 3 for the election).

While many of us are not enthusiastic about the WFP's main raison 
d'etre, which seems to be cross-endorsing Democratic candidates, 
Urania's case is different.  She was elected last year as a third-party 
candidate in her own right and now works as a complement to the Democrat 
and Republican registrars in Hartford. We should be supportive of her 
and encourage the WFP to run more of their own candidates.

Urania would like to see the Green Party run and elect more candidates 
for registrar of voters.  There may be some seats open in 2010, but 
mainly in 2012, when I'd like to see us run serious campaigns in New 
Haven and Bridgeport, both cities where a Green could get elected by 
garnering more votes than the Republican candidate for registrar.

David Bedell

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Date: 	Sun, 6 Sep 2009 12:10:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: 	Martha Kelly 
Subject: 	Fw: For Hartford Board of Education...
To: 	David Bedell 
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FILETIME=[B50EC560:01CA2F25]

David,

Thanks for the good news about Judge Underhill's decision.

I had a conversation with Urania Petit earlier today that I wanted to 
begin by discussing with you.

A Board of Ed election on November 2 is the first since her election. 
She will be seeking poll workers and moderators for the election. She 
needs about 7-8 moderators. The three registrars in Hartford have 
decided to split the polling places three ways.

She tells me that you don't need to be a resident of a town to be a 
moderator there, that the certification is valid state-wide. Getting 
into moderator training might be a bottleneck, since many towns may have 
adequate local participation from within the major parties. Still, 
getting certified may be a helpful way to inject GP and other third 
party folks into the process.

She also encourages GP efforts to get more registrars elected around the 
state.

Urania is interested in meeting with Green Party folks and sharing her 
experiences so far in the registrar's office. I previously mentioned the 
September 10th meeting to her (I hope that this is OK) and she is 
interested in coming. There is a Working Families Party meeting earlier 
that afternoon. (It has occurred to me since that Lieberman's popularity 
with progressives may be so low that Mertens might appeal to them???)

I urged her to discuss attending with Mike and Steve.

Another thing is that she asked me to be a Moderator in this Board of Ed 
election. Apparently state law does not require that Moderators be of 
the party that employs them, though it is customary. This is lucky for 
her (and me) since WFP has so few people actually registered through 
them. I have been a poll worker in a minor election in Bloomfield, but 
that is it.

I see poll work as an important way that anyone can gain insight into 
the election process and also gain exposure to folks who are involved 
through the major parties. I think that it would be valuable if third 
party people get involved in this way. In Hartford the Republicans 
commonly hire Democrats to work for them to fill their slots. Urania 
points out that West Haven has similarly lopsided party numbers.

By the way, she credits your campaign with far outstripping hers in 
total votes gained. The lopsided numbers gave her a far smaller goal for 
victory.

In view of the many ways that Registrars can create barriers to 
candidates, I suspect that getting more third party registrars elected 
is an important strategy.

Finally, a note on the subject of chemical policy reform and 
proportional voting. Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty Face; The 
Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry credits proportional voting with being 
one of the conditions that has led to greater willingness in the EU than 
the US to make policy choices for precautionary principles and 
regulations, such as the new REACH legislation. (But why have they and 
other places adopted proportional voting? Is is just because some places 
have more parties??? I'll have to look into this sometime).

Back to Hartford and Urania. She plans to have a Moderator training on 
October 6th. I urged her to ask Steve F and his wife in particular. I 
plan to attend. I think she will want to train more than the number of 
people she will need. I think she sees it as capacity building. There is 
a 76 page booklet on the Secretary of State's web site that she will 
send me a link to. You have to take a test after or at the end of the 
training to be certified. It seems to me that it could be to the GP's 
benefit to squeeze anyone into this training who could reasonably do so. 
You never know when a town could find itself short, what with the fact 
that the general face of both registrars and poll workers is old and older.

Let me know what you think of my quick thoughts. I would post something, 
but I am not sure how nor what list would make most sense, plus want to 
clean this up and not ramble to the world.

Martha
860-209-0748

P.S. I don't know if I have said that I am in Marshfield, MA, as I have 
been most of the time since May. My mother had a stroke in April and I 
have been helping her since she was discharged from rehab in May. Sorry 
I was not able to participate during this time. WFP has obviously jumped 
on the opportunity.

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