Rutgers-Camden law students help monitor voting

About 40 law students in the Voters' Rights Project at Rutgers-Camden spent Election Day shuttling among polling places in Camden and a law school conference room.

All volunteers, they were monitoring the voting process and evaluating whether the polling places met Board of Elections standards.

Starting before daybreak, the students by midday had examined every one of the 30 or so city polling places.

First-year law students quizzed voters to compile a demographic profile of who voted; second-years checked on the ease of access to the polls. Students also ensured that regulations were met, including that no campaign materials were visible.

The goal was to ensure that each ballot counted on Election Day, said Jennifer Kim, a second-year student.

The nonpartisan, pro bono program, mostly student-run, was created in 2005. Students initiated the project after observing violations at Camden polling places during the 2004 presidential election - such as campaign signs located too close to the polling site.

The Camden County Board of Elections now works side by side with the students and trains the second-years to address issues that they spot.

Two of the second-year students, Nick Hung and Monil Amin, coordinated the project this year.

After working on the project last year, Hung said, he concluded that while some problems would occur each election, "there is always improvement." Making sure voters and board workers know the process and the rules is a key goal of the project, he said.

After each election, the volunteers evaluate what they have found and propose to the Board of Elections solutions to deficiencies, Kim said.

This year, for example, the students made sure they carried extra provisional ballots.

"We're always in open communication with" the board, Kim said.

This election, she said, she was glad to see very little voter intimidation.

"I'm hoping," she said, "it's because of our work in previous years."

Christine Babcock, in her third year of volunteering for the project, said the posting of signs to guide voters this year had "improved drastically."

Amin said most issues he and other volunteers encountered Tuesday were minor and "easily remedied."

When students noticed insufficient signage at some polling places, they posted more signs, Amin said.

Besides monitoring polling places, the student project also has expanded another of its missions - voter registration.

Once confining registration activities to fellow students, the volunteers now also spend several hours each week registering voters off-campus, at locations such as PATCO stations and high schools.

Leading up to an election, Amin said, the student volunteers might work as much as 40 hours per semester for the project.

The nonpartisan voter-registration drives keep the momentum alive for the Voters' Right Project throughout the year, Amin said. This year, volunteers began reaching out to high school seniors, with other Rutgers organizations such as fraternities and sororities joining the efforts.

Eve Klothen, assistant dean for pro bono and public-interest programs at Rutgers, said that when the project was created, Rutgers received "irate calls" from the Board of Elections asking why students were monitoring polling places.

"It took a while to develop," Klothen said. The project has grown over the years, and she said she was "enormously proud" of the students.

Michael Perez, president of the Association for Public Interest Law at Rutgers-Camden, said improvements at polling places were a testament to the joint efforts of the students and the community.

"At this point," Perez said, "the county board sees us as an asset."

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