Elections Division, San Benito County

Mission:

Elections are the foundation of democracy and good government. Elections must accurately reflect the intent of the electorate. Transparency, security, accuracy, privacy, and integrity are vital voter rights.We are committed to maintaining public confidence in elections by assuring all of our elections are conducted in a fair, efficient and accurate manner with the highest level of integrity and vote security. The staff commits to excellence in maintaining up-to-date, accurate voter registration rolls to provide fair and equal opportunities for all qualified voters to participate in the democratic process.

Activities:

The Elections Division of the office of County Clerk-Auditor-Recorder-Elections Department performs duties as mandated by state, federal and local laws. This division registers voters and maintains the voter registration files for the County of San Benito. It also administers and conducts all federal, state, county, school district and special district elections and administers and conducts municipal elections under agreement with each city. The division accepts for filing, and maintains for public access, campaign statements of candidates for each election and for elected officials required to file them.

Needs/Projects this spring semester:

1. Surveys - students must be trained to do this at a special training.

a. To assess gaps in public awareness about the county’s bilingual election program, a county wide language assessment survey will be conducted. Must be a Spanish speaker.

2. Community Outreach - students must be trained to do this at a special training.

a. Students can work in teams to register voters in door to door or community meeting places.

3. Voter maintenance – students must be trained.

a. Students can assist in the office with general voter file maintenance. Review, update, and correct voter registration information, such as addresses, mailing addresses, birth date, political party, etc.

4. Candidate maintenance – students must be trained.

a. Students can assist in the office with the cataloging, imagining, and filing of candidate and election files (dating back to 1970s). Must be able to lift 10-15lbs.

Training will be offered according to project.

Who should apply:

This Division can work with nearly everyone, except sex offenders. Felons with other crimes are not barred from participating. Students who are bilingual especially helpful for access to populations that might need to register or getting voting support

Who should not apply:

Those on on sex offender list cannot do this work because polling places are at at schools and libraries, Agency must do a Megans Law check .

Other information:

People working at this government agency are very busy providing services. Please don't waste their time by setting up meetings you don't attend, come late to, or be absent without very good reason that you communicate in advance. Please be in communication with your supervisor about any questions or concerns you have. See http://sbcvote.us for agency website.

Address:

440 Fifth Street Second Floor, Room 206
Hollister, CA 95023

Contact information:

Francisco Diaz. 831 636 4016, fdiaz@cosb.us