Inspect your state's plan. Find the areas where it makes sense for you to pitch in and help implement the plan. A nonprofit can also work to make sure that the plan itself is being properly implemented. To find your state?s plan read the Federal Register notice announcing the 50 States' Implementation Plans. Also read the article New HAVA Requirements in Your State for background information on HAVA provisions.

Getting voters prepared for Election Day will minimize confusion and disenfranchisement at the polls. Voters need to know the new policies that have been implemented since the last time they have voted, what they need to take to the polls, and their rights when they get there. It is also important voters know the type of machine they will be using to vote.

HAVA mandates that all polling sites clearly display voter information. Voter information includes: types of identification needed to vote, provisional ballot procedures, and complaint procedures. To learn more about HAVA required voter information that polling places must post read the article Required Public Education for Voters.

Nonprofits should help states recruit poll workers that are capable of handling all responsibilities of the new law. After recruitment, nonprofits can work with the state to train poll workers for Election Day. Poll workers should know laws on ID requirements, provisional ballot laws, and second chance voting laws. They also will need working knowledge of the statewide up-to-date electronic list of all eligible voters, and make sure all polling places post educational information for voters. While states must put training systems in place for poll workers and other election officials, nonprofits can work to ensure that the system put in place is uniform and nondiscriminatory toward voters. There also might be opportunities for nonprofit organizations to work with the state and local election offices to provide poll worker trainings.

Nonprofits can place staff and volunteers at polling sites to ensure that all HAVA regulations are carried out and that all voters receive equal treatment when determining:

1. who is offered provisional ballots,

2. whose provisional ballots are counted,

3. how second-chance voting works,

4. who may provide assistance to voters in the polling booth,

5. who is asked for identification at the polls,

6. what forms of identification are accepted upon registration and at the polls,

7. how registration applications are processed and approved,

8. how voters? names are removed from the rolls because of ineligibility or duplication, and

9. how voter education requirements are carried out.

States often have problems recruiting enough poll workers and getting a diverse pool. Therefore, it is important that nonprofits help recruit poll workers that are informed of all the new laws and can help guarantee that all votes count. For more information about how you can help at the polls, visit League of Women Voters, a nonprofit non-partisan organization.

After the 2000 elections, when 18 states (including Florida) had no recourse for voters who believed they were registered but were turned away at the polls, one of HAVA’s main thrusts was to require provisional, or fail-safe, voting around the country. The federal law required a more uniform approach, where any person who arrives at a polling place and believes to be registered is permitted to cast a provisional ballot at the polling place after she/he has signed a statement in front of an election official affirming that they are a registered voter in that particular jurisdiction and they are eligible to vote in that election.

Once a citizen submits a provisional ballot, the burden is on the state to set up a toll-free telephone number or internet site so that the person who submitted a provisional ballot can find out whether their vote counted, and if not why. Twenty-seven states determined that only provisional ballots cast in the correct precinct would be eligible to be counted, while another 17 states count provisional ballots cast in the voter’s jurisdiction. Nonprofit organizations can help inform their communities of their provisional ballot rights. Additionally, polling places need to clearly post information on the provisional ballot procedures. It is up to community advocates to make their local polling sites post the required information clearly and visibly. With every state now utilizing some form of provisional balloting, the details of this importance assurance of voting rights must be known to all voters.

HAVA included landmark provisions that for the first time gave voters with disabilities a legal guarantee to be able to cast an independent and secret ballot in every polling place in the country. These accessibility changes were required to be in place by January 1, 2006. Though HAVA allocated $100 million to help states make polling places physically accessible, the law did not clearly define the term "accessible". Thus, it was up to the states to interpret its meaning and make sure polling places do not disenfranchise physically handicapped citizens. Nonprofit organizations can make sure that states have defined accessibility in a meaningful and true way, and that polling places now meet these criteria.

States are required to establish and maintain state-based administrative complaint procedures as a condition of receiving any HAVA funds. The procedures must all be uniform and nondiscriminatory. Any person who believes that there is a violation of their rights, which has occurred, is occurring, or about to occur may file a complaint. Complaints must be in writing and notarized. Both system violations (such as failure to set up an appropriate provisional ballot process or have the proper voter information at the polling site) and individual violations (such as failure to provide some one with a provisional ballot or not accepting what is known to be proper identification for first time voters) must be addressed. States must set up procedures that provide a means to address and resolve violations that occur immediately, and shall make final determination with respect to the complaint prior to 90 days after the date of the written complaint. Even states that do not receive HAVA funds must set up procedures that handle complaints.

As of January 1, 2004 all states (whether or not they receive HAVA funds) were required to have their complaint procedures and alternative dispute resolution compliance plan certified by the Election Assistance Commission. States could also choose to submit a compliance plan containing detailed information on the steps they will take to ensure that they meet the requirements of nondiscrimination and uniform voting procedures to the Attorney General instead of the EAC. Nonprofits organizations can help ensure that all procedures surrounding complaints are legal, in place, and are clearly posted at polling sites on Election Day.