Election Officer Personal Statement

I first became interested with the idea of becoming a Special Forces Warrant Officer during my seventh deployment. At the time I had served in the army for almost 14 years, 10 of which were in Special Operations. I was originally assigned to the infantry where I excelled in all my training and leadership courses. This drove me to push myself further and try out for the Special Forces, eventually being assigned to my first Operational Detachment in November 2004. While I have thoroughly enjoyed and excelled as a Special Forces Medical Sergeant, I feel there is more room for growth in my career and am looking forward to my next challenge.

In John Fund’s reflection, the Department of Investigation went through a procedure to see how easy it was to commit voter fraud. The DOI had sent out agents to show up at 63 polling places all who “pretended to be voters who should have been turned away by election officials; the agents assumed names of individuals who had died or moved out of town, or who were sitting in jail. 61 instances, or 97 percent of the time, the testers were allowed to vote.” (Fund, pg 353) After gathering this evidence that voter fraud was possible and way easier than it seemed, they published a report which accused the city’s Board of Elections voting

“The Candidate” is a prime example to the inside of a campaign and the inside of an election. Elections do not only include the candidate themselves but the campaign manager, the supporters, the nominee’s family and the media crew. During “The Candidate” democratic nominee John McKay uses many strategies in order to “not” win his election for senator of California. Going into this campaign McKay was in hopes that he would not win the election, as time passed his view of the election changed as did his strategies.

Experience in, or the ability to acquire specific knowledge of, the health and human services and government relations and policy development

I have not had much interest in politics until recently. Before last year, I did not care for anything related to politics; I thought that it was all boring and had little to no affect on me on a personal level. I am more interested in politics nowadays. I know better now that it does affect me and I should care about it. I had learned about the concepts of political socialization, party identification, political tolerance, political trust, political efficacy in government class and how they affect my political beliefs. My personal political belief has been shaped into what it is today and is still being shaped because of those six concepts.

Early in December, the filing period for the 2014 election cycle ended. Looking over the ballot, I am gratified by the number of my fellow citizens that desire to serve. When I look at my place on the ballot, I am unopposed in the primary in March and the general election in

I read an interesting article in our local newspaper, The Panolian. The article was written by the editor of the paper, John Howell. Mr. Howell is a great writer. He lives in Batesville, Mississippi some of the time, Mr. Howell’s article was about the upcoming election for several positions in Panola County. In August we will be voting for Sheriff, Supervisors, and Justice Court. In Mississippi we have an open primary. Open Primary means that Democrats, Republicans, and Independents can vote for the candidate of their choice. Voting is very important. It is a privilege to be able to vote for the person you think can best represent your views and values. Mr. Howell give us a politics 101, crash course in voting and the electoral system. Although

We have come a long way from a time when only white, affluent, property owning males could vote. In terms of ‘voting rights’ it was a gradual expansion of the vote, which slowly began to expand to all whites, individuals once labeled slaves or ‘aliens’, African Americans, military personal and women. To vote in the United States, no longer do you need to pass a literacy test, but you must be a U.S citizen and at least 18 years old on Election Day. In addition, some states also require various periods of residency before voting is permitted. Furthermore some states restrict felons or those mentally incompetent to vote. In Massachusetts, for the first time, there was Early Voting. During this period, October 24th to November 4th, registered voters were allowed to cast their ballots. During this period of Early voting, I along with a group of classmates had the engaging opportunity to be an exit pollster. We decided to canvas much of the Boston area, with hopes of a ranging demographic. This hands-on experience, working with a team in carrying out the exit poll, allowed for a greater insight to the dynamics of election administration, a deeper understanding on the rights of voters and voter turn out, technique for attaining a random sample, the role of the interviewer and importance of survey design.

Although I was not old enough to vote in this past election, I still have found ways to be active in ways other than voting. Over the summer, I represented the Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperation, my electricity provider, in Washington D.C. In order to qualify for the trip I wrote a letter regarding a current issue in electricity, the federal regulation of our electricity. On this tour I met other students from within the cooperation district and from other districts from across the United States. More importantly, I met the officials, who we elected to represent us in the House of Representatives. In this meeting with our representative, Glenn Thompson, we covered issues such as creating jobs, the upcoming election, the Supreme Court justice vacancy and other controversial topics that dominate every news channel. While we toured other major points within the District of Columbia, the national mall, the capital building, the House of Representative and the Senate House, and many others, our district’s representatives showed true citizenship for our area. We learned of many political policies and stories of our great nation, a necessity for an exemplary citizen.

One of my biggest lessons learned from this experience is that knowing the resident of your district can be extremely beneficial to your campaign. At my location we cast one thousand nine hundred and eighteen ballots. While I’m against stereotyping I found it ironic that most of the people who came in you could intuit which party they were going to participate in. The lady with awesome tattoos and purple hair wasn’t most likely to identify with a conservative republican; likewise the older authentic rancher was not very likely to be a liberal. That day I had the privilege of helping a new citizen vote for the very first time. She got dressed up in her nicest clothes and was on the verge of tears, because she was so excited. I also observed that many multi-generational families tended to participate in the same party. I encountered a few hard headed almost embarrassed people who believed they didn’t need to disclose what party they wanted to participate in, but overall it was an amazing day that won’t be soon forgotten. The amount of behind the scenes work that is required by the county is almost unfathomable and I’m grateful to all of the logistics it takes to allow people to participate in

I fell in love with politics at the age of 10, the year was 2004, and I liked John Kerry because he shared my name. I also supported him because my father, at the time, was supporting George W. Bush and I was a rather antagonistic child. Over time I’ve certainly become more nuanced in the candidates I support, but that year began a lifetime journey into a field that is ever changing, ever competitive, and that impacts so many lives.

The master of arts degree in homeland security program will provide me a deeper understanding and stronger foundation in homeland security by delving into the core elements of homeland security. This increased enlightenment will have a complementary result of better preparing me to be a knowledgeable, senior level homeland professional. As a veteran with 32 years of honorable service in the United States Army, my time spent in the military has given me a greater understanding and knowledge of the current threats that face our nation. I believe this program will provide me the opportunity to expand my understanding of the nature and sources of threats facing our social, political, and economic systems. In addition, this program will help me

The phrase “Make your voice heard and vote!” is always being tossed around. What they people don 't know is that your voice isn 't always heard. Your presidential vote doesn 't really matter because of the electoral college. They make the choice of what your state wants. What you want! People are being silenced for whom they want to become president and believe they are living in a county with a democratic government. And with the removal of the electoral college, we can be heard.

The election process in the United States is a valuable process to the election of the proper officials to satisfy the people. The people run the country which is why we live in freedom because we control what happens with major decisions by choosing whom we want to decide these decisions. The whole country goes to vote on a certain day and by the end of that day we will vote to select who will run the country, state, county, or city political positions. The most complex decision and one with the biggest impact are selecting who the President of the United States shall be. We examine what their views are and who would do a better job. Then vote in our respected states with a certain number of electoral votes

Reform agendas presented by the candidates result in vibrant democratic politics, which requires the conscious participation of citizens. It provides a chance for citizens to engage in political activity with others. Political campaigns enable the citizens to contribute to the nomination process thus choosing the best candidate in their party. American politics involves candidates who mostly make unambiguous statements thus conveying their message to the citizens effectively. This means that the citizens have a solid basis on which to make decisions during the nominations and the elections. Distortions in communication due to misstatements are reduced by the accuracy and lack of ambiguity in information communicated the candidates (Schmidt, Shelley, & Bardes, 2009). The campaigns are effective since they result in the election of candidate with the most promising policies and reforms. The focus of the campaigns is national and social issues, which results in election and nomination of candidates that are nationalistic and with ideologies that are acceptable by most of the citizens.