Fifteen UNC students took part in election protection training Saturday in preparation for the March 15 North Carolina primary election.
Ignite N.C., a group that works to defend voter rights, held the workshop. According to the group's website, Ignite N.C. seeks to educate residents about changing voting laws, monitor precincts for voter intimidation or suppression and document issues and incidents at the precincts.
“The training is teaching people the bare basics of the voting law that was passed in 2013,” said Kim Hoàng, a senior who helped organize the event. “Since that law has changed a lot within the past three years, we have to teach people how the laws are changing, what rules are being put in and what has been taken out so far.”
Hoàng said the laws are subtle and constantly changing, making it harder to vote and suppressing certain groups such as poor people, people of color, students and the elderly.
“I think it’s important for students to know why it’s important to vote and why protecting the right to vote is something that they should care about,” she said.
The students met for two hours and were trained to be non-partisan poll monitors at precincts close to campus. They will stand outside polling places in the upcoming primary election and provide support for voters who have difficulty voting by directing them to the right resources.
Students were trained to answer questions and document voters’ experiences through an exit survey. They will also direct voters who experience a problem or have a complaint to a hotline staffed by election experts.
“We are not training people to be experts,” Hoàng said. “We are training them to answer very basic questions, and we are training them to collect data and report incidents so that we can use them in research and hopefully take down the law in the future, using these stories as evidence.”
Sigma Phi Society, Democracy North Carolina and Scholars for North Carolina's Future also sponsored the training.
