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GO
VOTE! Library Display Competition
Posters and Flyers were sent out today!
(Thank you Communications team! See previews below.)
Start designing your Voting Displays!
At minimum, please display the poster, flyers, and the short-form registration
forms. Voter Guides be available only the week of October 15th.
When you set up the location’s display,
send pictures of the Library Display to:
o Saima
Kadir
832-640-5984
o Marjorie
Gonzalez
281-967-9360
o Or place in G: Drive
/_Neighborhood library Marketing/your NL folder
One picture per Library Display will be
posted to the HPL Instagram account, with your NL hashtag. Encourage your
customers to follow @HoustonPublicLibrary on Instagram and like (VOTE) for
their favorite library Voting Display. Detailed info on the competition and
hashtags is in the attached FAQ.
The location with the most likes by
October 8th wins! The winning location will be announced on Staff Appreciation
Day.
RESOURCES
Please see the FAQ's below for
questions related to Voter registration, Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrars,
Voter education resources, the Library Display Competition, and what to do when
someone is not a citizen.
§ Website: Check out the updated
Go Vote page! http://houstonlibrary.org/learn-explore/go-vote
Direct your customers to this site for
any questions. We will be keeping the website updated with voter ID law
guidelines, important dates, seeing your local ballot, getting educated on the
issues, election hotlines, etc.
§ League of Women Voters website:
http://www.vote411.org/
The LWV website is also a good resource
to address questions your customers may have. You can enter in an address, and
available info will be customized to the location.
FAQ's
1.
What
is the Go Vote campaign?
Go Vote! Campaign
§ Theme:
Get
Registered. Get Informed. Go Vote!
§ Key
Dates: Now
until Tuesday, October 11 – Voter Registration
Wednesday,
September 27 – National Voter Registration Day
Saturday,
October 1 – LibroFest
Week
of October 15 – Release of League of Women Voters’ Guide
Monday,
October 24 – Friday, November 4 – Early Voting
Tuesday,
November 8 – Election Day
Project Goal
Inspire the Houston
community to (1) register to vote, (2) get informed on the voting process, the
national and local candidates and issues, and (3) go and vote (Early or on
Election Day).
2. How do I register to vote in Texas, and
what is a Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrar?
Texas law requires a hard copy registration form to be mailed or
delivered to the county registrar’s office. Therefore, someone is
only registered to vote when they receive confirmation from the County
Registrar, not when they have filled out an application, whether online or ‘on-site’.
In Texas, ‘on-site registration’ means that a Volunteer Deputy is on-site to
assist in filling out voter applications.
You can check whether someone is registered to vote at the
following link: Check here.
For background, please review the following information about voter
registration:
- Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrars (VDVRs)
- VDVRs are individuals who have been
trained and are designated by the County Voter Registrar to assist
eligible persons with a voter registration application. They can help to
complete a voter registration application (particularly in the case of
someone who cannot read or has a disability), and to review the
completion of an application before accepting it. They cannot determine
whether a customer is eligible to vote.
- VDVRs should
arrive with their own voter registration forms, called the ‘long-form’
version’. When they assist a customer with registration, they will
collect these forms, issue a receipt to the customer, and are required to
hand deliver the forms to the County Registrar within 5 days. HPL
staff do not collect or mail in the forms provided by VDVRs.
- Please provide a
small table and a few chairs for the VDVRs. Please also put up a sign
that makes it clear what the table is for (e.g. ‘On-Site Voter Registration).
- We have asked
that VDVRs bring their Certificate of Appointment with them. This
certificate indicates they have gone through the County’s Deputy
Training, and are qualified to assist customers with filling out the
registration application. If they cannot provide their Deputy # when
asked, please call me.
- We have also
asked that any collateral from third party organizations be reviewed
beforehand. If they cannot confirm that their collateral is approved,
please ask them not to distribute those materials.
- Please note that
Deputies certified by Harris County can only register voters who live in
Harris County, not in other Counties. Some Deputies are certified by
multiple Counties (Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, etc.). If a Deputy is
not certified by the County that the customer resides in, they can hand
out a short-form registration (the form the Library carries), but cannot
assist that customer to register.
- HPL Voter Registration forms
- Separately, HPL
staff can continue to distribute the existing voter registration forms
which we offer when a customer signs up for a Library card. (These are
called ‘short-form’ versions.)
- HPL staff do not
assist in filling out these short-forms, but can offer to send the
short-form through the Library mail system. If customers request
assistance in filling out the form, HPL staff can direct customers to the
VDVRs when available.
- Additional short
forms can be sent out upon request. Additional languages are available as
well (Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese).
- Online Voter Registration
- Online sites are
available to assist in filling out the form. However, the form must be
printed and mailed in.
- The following
link has been provided especially for HPL for online registration.
https://turbovote.org/?r=hpl
3. How do I enter in an ‘On-Site Voter
Registration’ time into Events Module?
Event Title: Voter
Registration
Event Type:
Citizenship
Event Description:
Register to vote at your local Library! A volunteer Deputy Voter Registrar will
be on-site to assist you with the registration process. Deputies will be
available across all our locations from now through the last day of Voter
Registration, October 11th. Check the calendar for other dates and times. Many
thanks to the generous partnership of the League of Women Voters of Houston
Education Fund for coordinating the Volunteer Deputies.
4. What is the Go Vote! Library Display
Competition, and how does my Location win?
§
Take a picture of your Go Vote! Library Display, and send
pictures to:
o
Saima Kadir
832-640-5984
o
Marjorie
Gonzalez
281-967-9360
o
Or place in G: Drive /_Neighborhood library Marketing/your
NL folder
§
One picture per Library Display will be posted to Houston
Public Library Instagram account @HoustonPublicLibrary
§
Each posting will have the following hashtags:
o
#HPLVotes
o
#2016election
o
#election2016
o
#HOUVotes
o
#HOUVotes2016
o
#Library location
hashtag
§
Encourage your customers to follow @HoustonPublicLibrary on
Instagram and like (VOTE) for their favorite library Voting Display.
§
Pictures will also be shared via Facebook and Twitter.
The location with the most likes by
October 8th wins! The winning location will be announced on Staff Appreciation
Day.
Please see the Stella Link
hashtags below.
Library
Hashtag 1
Hashtag 3
Stella Link NL #HOUStellaLinkNL
#StellaLinkLibrary
5. What do I do if a customer is not a
citizen and/or is not eligible to vote?
You can provide information on
available Citizenship classes (Get available classes from the intranet
here). You can also encourage them to Get Informed on the election by going
to the library’s website (http://houstonlibrary.org/go-vote).
6. What is the partnership with the League
of Women Voters, and how do I get a Voters Guide?
§
The League of Women Voters of Houston Education Fund is partnering with
HPL on getting Houston to Go Vote across all HPL locations during the 2016 election
season.
§
The League has generously offered to
coordinate Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrars across all of our locations – from
September 12th through the last day of Voter Registration, October
11th. HPL will be working with the League on getting the community
out to vote through the Election season.
§
The League will also continue their
support in providing their League of Women Voters Guides to all locations. The
Guides are expected to be available the week of October 15th.
§
Hard copies of the Voters Guides will
be distributed to all locations. The electronic version will also be linked to
HPL’s website.
For additional questions, please
contact Helen Chou at helen.chou@houstontx.gov, or 832-393-1511.