Elections: Behind the Scenes

This past summer, our McCarthy Fellows in Sacramento got to experience public service on a personal level. For Jazmine Tabili ’20, a Politics major with a Public Service & Community Engagement, and Legal Studies minor; her experience came through the inner workings of how elections come together at the California Secretary of State’s Office. She tells us more in this week’s blog.

Community engagement has played a huge role in my life, and one of the first experiences I had was when I first started working on a political campaign. The regulation of elections and campaigns have always fascinated me, and it led to more opportunities such as registering voters through the program USF Votes, and I eventually transitioned into becoming a poll worker.

When I found that I would be interning at the Secretary of State’s Office, I was stunned at first, and after a few moments, elated to become a part of our wonderful staff here. It felt like a full circle, spending my entire summer at the office where I get to see the “behind the scenes” action on elections and campaigns, the place where my journey in community engagement began. 

During my time at the Secretary of State’s Office, I worked on multiple projects that reflected the different areas that our office covers. For instance, I spent the first part of my internship researching poll worker manuals from all 58 California counties and making sure that they all had detailed instructions for No Party Preference voters who were filling their ballot out.

I also helped with the early stages of forming a new implementation that is loosely based on the format of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. It’s still in the works, but I am glad that I was a part of the project. Some of my other projects included writing a page about the United Farm Workers for the Archives department and working with the Business department by educating entrepreneurs on how to legally register their cannabis business on a state level.

I enjoyed my time at the Secretary of State’s Office, and I can’t wait to transfer the skills that I have learned from my experience towards my future endeavors!