As an election monitor, you'll need to collect many types of information about how your local elections are conducted. It's important to begin with some understanding of the functions of election officials so you'll have a clearer idea of where to look for the information you need.
The Secretary of State (SoS) in most states is responsible for elections. Click on your state for
the website of your SoS or other statewide elections office.
• Visit your SoS website and find the fraud hotline/incident reporting. Bookmark the page.
• Call the SoS's office and ask for the election code references on observing and monitoring.
The county (or similar jurisdiction) actually runs the elections. The head official is likely to have
one of these titles:
• County Clerk
• County Clerk Recorder
• County clerk Recorder Registrar
• Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk
• County Auditor/Clerk/Recorder
• Registrar of Voters
Locate the county (or local jurisdiction) web page and the name, title and phone number of the
official in charge on the list provided by Project Vote Smart. Call your elections office and ask:
• If they have an election incident reporting system.
• If they have a timeline of activities they are working on leading up to the election
o Here is an example for Alameda County, California.
http://www.acgov.org/rov/dates.htm
• If they have any written guidelines on election monitoring and observation.
Now return to the monitoring guide for next steps.