Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to save democracry as we know it. The Help America Vote Act went into effect with this year's primary and only 7% of provisional ballots cast in Chicago were actually counted because of mistakes made by unprepared election judges. 8,615 votes were turned down. To keep that from happening again, the League of Women Voters of Chicago is seeking ordinary citizens to become trained as pollwatchers. If you choose this assignment, you'll travel to one or more voting precincts, observe the process, and report problems to the election authorities. Training is free and the first session takes place on October 10th. Contact Angelique Grandone at agrandone@lwvil.org. This message will self-destruct in 10 seconds.

provisional ballot: If someone arrives at a polling place and is told that they can't vote, they can vote on a provisional ballot. This ballot is counted only if they were correctly registered and voted in the right spot. It's an effort to prevent that whole Florida fiasco.