Living day to day, you may have noticed within yourself the urge to make a difference.
All of us come across ‘if-it-were-up-to-me’ moments. Moments when we feel like things could be done differently, or better, and perhaps, if it were up to us, we‘d make sure they were. We may have gotten this feeling in dealing with situations in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our society, and on a larger scale, in our nation.
Well, the truth is this — along with this urge, there is in each of us a capacity to make that difference. From whatever background we come from, as members of our society we can all partner towards building a better nation. It is up to you — you can choose to make the most of the opportunities given to you: your rights as a citizen, your resources, your education or experiences.
Know that YOU have that capacity to make a good difference.
Now, imagine TWO MILLION PEOPLE carrying that torch.
Two million people living out their rights and voicing their choice.
This initiative to get as many new voters registered, will make a difference.
We are made extraordinary through our actions. Be part of this effort: an extraordinary network of people is already in action, a platform has been set up, and the tools are already available.
Firstly, DOWNLOAD THE BRIEFING PACK. It will tell you why you need certain documents, what data entry is for, code of conduct and more.
Don’t worry about not knowing where to start, its simple and this guide will cover everything you need to know. This website will also act as a venue for participants across the nation to share their own tips from their own experiences.
So you know, you are not alone, in doing this, you join a large network of passionate people mobilizing to make this difference in our community.
To begin with, get in touch with E.P.I.C. for Unity. We’ll hook you up with the things you need to know, as well as keep track of the progress of registration booths taking part in this effort across the country.
GETTING STARTED
The basics in starting a voter’s registration drive is acquiring the voters’ registration forms.
(Treat your forms like gold!)
There are 2 ways to obtain forms:
Acquiring from an Assistant Registrar
Acquiring an SPR mobile team
Do contact us as we might have already one ready for you !
If not, Registration forms can be obtained from the Assistant Registrars of the Election Commission (Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia) in your area.
A list of these Assistant Registrars along with their contact details can be found at the SPR official website http://www.spr.gov.my.
You are required to write in a letter to your state SPR Director for assistance (usually you should do this 2 weeks before the event).
Only basic personal information is required when filling up the form (Name, IC No.,
Address, Phone No., Race, Religion, etc.).
The information filled in MUST be the exact same information shown in the voter’s IC. It only takes about five minutes to fill up!
Click here to download a sample of a completed registration form.
Once it is filled up, ensure you inform participants that it takes 2-4 months to be registered, and sometimes it might even take 6 months. Let them know that their name will appear on the following website once approved:
It is extremely important that all voters registration activity be done under these parties (Assistant Registrar or SPR Mobile Team) -they MUST be present during registrations – as we as ordinary citizens have NO AUTHORITY to register people on our own. If such rules are broken, forms will be wasted and anyone who had been registered by your party will be canceled.
Pick a location with high-traffic of people, and is at the same time non-disruptive. Places such as malls and large commercial areas where your team members may walk around to reach as many people as possible.
All it takes is about 5 minutes for a person to sign up, so places where they are already waiting in line, or hanging out after meals, is ideal. Make sure that your booth is set up in a place where everyone can see you.You may have to run your intentions by the management in most establishments. Be polite, assure them you are not trying to sell anything; you are working on this voter’s registration project in collaboration with SPR intending to raise civic awareness towards the role of the citizen, and would appreciate their support. Contact us directly for letter templates.
Tools you may need : -
For urban booths:
Administrative Tools
Promotional Tools
Minimum of 2 laptops (you’ll find out why below)
Wi-fi/Portable modem/Internet connection to access SPR’s portal
Camera for recording purposes
Donation box (YES!)
Buntings
Posters
Educational booklets
Uniformed badge
Email Data Registration Form
(refer to the briefing pack, and download the data registrant capture sheet here)
These promotional tools and our briefing guide are available on our resources page, so it would be much appreciated if you could download them and print them out yourselves. Alternatively, you may contact us and we’ll send them over to you (at cost).
IT IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE THAT YOU FOLLOW THE DATA REGISTRANT CAPTURE SHEET EXACTLY! This is to ensure collation can be transitioned smoothly from different states.
Start-up a blog and a twitter account to journal your experience! This will be invaluable as an essential way to keep each other in the network posted.
Share your journey step by step, it will definitely serve as helpful information and encouragement.
Also, as we create an impact in the real world, it would be awesome to also trace that ripple in the internet-world.
Your online blogs and twitter accounts are essential as they will be linked along with all the other registration drives nationwide on the E.P.I.C. main site. This is why we really encourage you to plug in with us as it will be the central point from which progress can be tallied and reported in an easily accessible venue. Join the Facebook pages, update us, link your blogs to our site and keep in touch!
Checklist:
Have you:
Put up buntings and posters in strategic areas?
Readied your laptops?
Put out the donation box?
Made sure each of your members has a set of registration forms, e-mail data form and a pen each?
Armed yourself with a pleasant smile and steadfast confidence in your cause and passion to get as many Malaysians involved as possible?
If you have, then you should be good to go. =)
You will recieve all kinds of different responses.
Some, more encouraging than others.
There will be some people who are more skeptical than others, who are verbal about not wanting to register. This is inevitable. While you try your best to persuade them that they should at least register to fulfill their right to voice their choice, don’t let them get you down. Hold fast to your cause, dust yourself and your comrades off, and move on.
Data capture is important because we would like to reward those who want to stand up and be responsible for our collective future.
We would also like to be able to inform those who have registered with us as to whether their forms have been approved. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to at this moment in time, as we are working on developing the mechanisms for this.
Checklist For Forms
Do’s & Dont’s
Make sure the filled up registrations forms are signed by the Assistant Registrar
Make sure each form has a pink carbon copy, which will be given to the registrant after they’ve completed the form
Make sure that each registrant fills in their e-mail addresses in the e-mail registration form
Do ask if you may fill in the forms for the registrants based on their ICs. This is to ensure that the information is accurately transposed from their ICs to the registration form.
Do give each registrant their pink carbon copy as proof of registration
Do remember to take pictures and share them with Malaysia
DO NOT WASTE FORMS! Try to make minimal mistakes. If filled in wrongly, cancel out the wrong details neatly and write the correct info next to it. Spoilt forms have a very high chance of being classified is illegitimate if writing is illegible.
DO NOT THROW AWAY VOID FORMS. They must all be returned to the Assistant Registrar (that’s what the serial numbers are for)
Say Thank You to your team, because you are nothing without the people next to you
Thank the Assistant Registrar for his/her gracious support
Don’t forget to thank the location hosts
Email us the excel sheet with the email data: email Data@dosomethingepic.net
After all data has been captured, return the forms to the Assistant Registrar
Send us details of the volunteers, they must be registered on the website
Your experience is invaluable, and best shared! So get to blogging your experiences, chances are your tips would be useful to the next person doing it. There is beauty in a network of people working together.
Also, put up pictures and videos – so your readers may get a better idea of what goes on. Don’t forget to utilize great social media platforms like facebook events, twitter buzz and the entire blogosphere!
Please note that Registrant Data and Email Capture is to ensure that we can check and confirm if your registration forms have been approved.
Mechanisms are still in development, but we would like to reward those who have registered and participated, including our volunteers. Please list down all of their emails for this purpose.
