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The Easy to Read Voting Guide
The Easy to Read Voting Guide is designed to allow the 20% of eligible voters in Oregon who cannot read at the 12th grade level, access to information that will allow them to make an educated decision during the November 2004 election. This will be a new project for both the League of Women Voters of Oregon and Oregon Literacy, Inc., however, it is an adaptation of a similar project that has been in place in California since 1994. The project is organized through coordinated efforts between the League of Women Voters of Oregon and Oregon Literacy, Inc.
Ordering Info
Would you like to help fellow Oregonians learn to vote by distributing easy-to-read, non-partisan information about the November 2004 election? click here for ordering info.
Print Your Own Copy
You can print out your own copy of the Easy to Read Voting guide! Both an English and Spanish version are available for you to download and print from your computer. Download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Workshops
Through an additional partnership with Hands on Portland, a group of volunteers has been trained through their TeamWorks program to deliver special workshops using the Easy to Read Voting Guide. These workshops are designed to help someone who is not familiar with the voting process to get the information they need to become a voter.
To read more about the Hands on Portland training, go here.
There may still be opportunities to have on-site workshops helping people learn how to vote for your students. Call Oregon literacy at 503-244-3898 or email outreach@oregonliteracy.org to inquire about availability.
More Info
The California Easy Reading Voter Guide [www.easyvoter.org] is a sixteen page booklet that provides nonpartisan voting information in a clear, concise, easy-to-read format. Its intention is to make the complex voting material understandable to a broad range of Californians. Included in the sixteen pages are statements from each of California's political parties, statements and photos from candidates for statewide offices, concise explanations of statewide ballot measures, and basic information on registering and voting. To ensure that the guide is nonpartisan, all registered political parties in California and all candidates in a race are invited to submit their own statements for the guide. A team of literacy learners reviews the statements and suggests changes to improve the material so that it is easier to read. The suggestions are given then to the parties or candidates for approval before publication. Writers from the League of Women Voters create explanations on the ballot measures, which are reviewed and edited by a literacy team before they are checked for accuracy and lack of bias by an expert review panel drawn from the Legislative analyst's Office, the senate Office of Research, and the League of Women Voters.
The League of Women Voters of Oregon and Oregon Literacy, Inc. are adapting a similar process in the creation of such a guide for the people of Oregon. This guide is necessary and will provide those Oregonians who are not currently exercising their right to vote with the information they need to make an educated decision. With only 66.9% of eligible and registered voters voting, according to the 2003 January Special Election Statistical Summary, something clearly needs to be done to ensure that every single Oregon resident's voice is being heard.
If you are with the press and would like to cover Oregon Literacy in any
way, or would like to submit a story please contact Jon Toorock at
503-244-3898 or jon@oregonliteracy.org.
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