1. Poll Watchers are people who volunteer to observe the conduct of elections.  If properly credentialed, poll watchers can be stationed inside the polls, but only established political parties (i.e., Dems and GOP), and candidates who qualified to be on the ballot, are permitted to credential inside poll watchers (in some cases, it can be beneficial to have poll watchers outside of the polling places.  Outside poll watchers are not required to be credentialed but do have to abide by the rules of conduct generally applicable to the general public).

2.  While the Democratic Party of Georgia (DPG) has general oversight and administration of poll watching activities conducted on behalf of the Democratic Party in Georgia, the Muscogee County Democratic Committee (MCDC) has been designated as a “self-organizing county” for the purposes of recruiting, credentialing and scheduling poll watchers in Muscogee County (note:  DPG recruits poll watchers to serve in non-self-organizing counties; if you volunteer directly with DPG, they will not assign you to Muscogee County).  

3. The MCDC Voter Protection Committee is currently seeking volunteers to serve as poll watchers for the 2025 November Special Election (PSC Districts 2 and 3).  Volunteers are not required to be members of the MCDC and are not required to be Georgia residents.  Volunteers are required to complete training (supplied virtually by DPG) before being credentialed.  DPG also supplies an online reporting tool (called “LBJ”) for the purpose of reporting any observed issues.

4. Our approach to poll watching is that we are in the room to observe the process and report any issues observed, but also to assist voters (to the extent permitted) if we observe them having trouble in trying to vote.  We do this without regard to the voter’s party affiliation or preferences.

5. We will need volunteers for early voting which will take place at the Citizens Services Center every day from 10/14/25 to 10/31/25 from 7 am to 7 pm each day (Saturdays and Sundays included).  For this election, we will most likely need enough volunteers to staff a morning shift (7am to 9am), a lunch shift (11am to 1pm) and a late shift (5pm to 7pm) each day, with a maximum of 2 inside poll watchers at any given time.

6. We will also need volunteers for Election Day, Tuesday, 11/4/2025.  Muscogee County has 25 precincts, all of which will be open from 7am to 7pm.  Our approach to scheduling election day is to divide the day into a morning shift (7am to 1pm) and an afternoon shift (1pm to 7pm), with only a maximum of 2 inside poll watchers at any given time.  If we can get enough volunteers, we would love to be able to cover all 25 precincts (something we’ve never been able to achieve).

7.  The PSC election is likely to be a fairly low-turnout  election, and as a result, we anticipate that much of the work of observing will be uneventful; nevertheless, this is important work that needs to be accomplished no matter how boring or mundane it may turn out to be – you never know what might happen.  Additionally, we view this election as a perfect opportunity to assemble a team of poll watching volunteers who will be ready for the primary and general election in 2026.  

8. If you’re interested in volunteering to poll watch with the MCDC, please fill out the following Google form:

https://forms.gle/Lqbbmx8gGaVL1vov9

If you’re not sure, but have additional questions, please contact the MCDC Voter Protection Subcommittee

We are anticipating scheduling an event in September to conduct further recruitment as well as to answer questions about the work in more detail – be on the lookout for an announcement about event details on mobilize.us.