With a continual need for increased efficiency, accountability and transparency in all public sectors, along with a requirement to be more strategic in the prioritization and delivery of programs, services and other social initiatives, the need to innovate, communicate and engage the community is absolutely necessary.
In order to ensure adequately staffed polling places, public awareness of methods of voting, registration opportunities and more, the Registrar of Voters reaches out to the greater Orange County community of 3.2 million residents. In addition, requirements under the federal Voting Rights Act requires the translation of ballot materials and recruitment of bilingual poll workers. Because of this requirement in federal law - we also conduct outreach to all language based communities to help meet these requirements.
In order to conduct successful elections we rely on help from the community. Our community outreach efforts have been used as a model nationwide as an innovative way to reach the community. In order to maintain a transparent process we must communicate our services and educate the public on how we conduct elections.
Difference Between Community Outreach and Community Engagement
Although related we separate the functions of Community Outreach and Community Engagement due to the different objectives of each:
- Community Outreach - Overall program designed to ensure input is received from the community and information is presented to the voting population about requirements as it relates to federal and state election laws. Also ensures compliance is achieved under statutory outreach mandates. Voter education is a key component of our outreach mission.
- Community Engagement - A comprehensive collection of unique methods used to seek involvement from the community in order to ensure opportunities are available for citizens to register to vote; increase our election volunteer database totals; and to raise public awareness about Orange County elections in general.