From its inception, FFEC has urged citizens to take ownership of their elections by exercising their right to observe and monitor their elections at their local precincts and elections office. This right, however, comes with some important caveats. Your right to observe is constrained by law. Know what you can and cannot do before you arrive at the polling place or elections office. This will be set out in your state’s election code. Remember that you are an observer, not a participant. You should also know as much as possible about the voting process so that you understand what you are observing.
To these ends, we have developed training materials as well as packets of forms to be used by poll watchers and other citizen observers to record information. We have offered these materials, free of charge, to whatever groups are interested in using them.
These forms were developed for use with an optical scan system that uses touchscreens for disabled accessibility (called a “blended” system); however, they can be easily adapted for use with other equipment. They can also be used either for early voting or election day.
While you are free to use the materials, we ask the following:
Sample poll opening check list
Sample poll closing check list
Sample poll watcher evaluation