Voter Action Pinellas: Fall Pro Bono Opportunities
Voter Action Pinellas (https://www.voteractionpinellas.org/), a nonprofit voter advocacy group, has pro bono opportunities available for students who can commit to at least fifteen hours during the summer. We can structure an unpaid internship with a commitment of at least forty hours, and can provide sixty or more hours for students interested in fulfilling their entire pro bono commitment this summer.
- The internship can include legal and/or nonlegal work, and is available for students at any stage of their studies. We’ll provide training as necessary.
- These are remote projects, without any required in-person meetings or specific scheduled work hours.
Any interested student should send a resume, a brief statement of interest, and the number of hours available to Mary Fahy (727-424-6987; [email protected]) by May 31, 2025.
We can tailor the internship work to the student’s interests. Here is a description of some available projects:
Legal Pro Bono
Election Law Legal Research
Research election law applicable to Pinellas County local government elections (including municipal, fire district, and school board elections), state and federal races, and ballot questions. Prepare educational materials for voters. Research will cover the election schedule, primary and general election voting rules, candidate qualifying procedures, and procedures for including charter amendments and other questions on the ballot.
Voter Rights Legal Research
- Research law applicable to restoration of voting rights for Returning Citizens (citizens with felony convictions). Prepare steps for research of criminal records of Returning Citizens to determine eligibility for restoration of voting rights.
- Prepare a summary of the impact of recent statutes imposing restrictions on voter registration and vote by mail.
- Prepare summaries of voter identification, residency, and other requirements for casting a ballot by mail or in person.
Nonlegal Pro Bono
Voter Registration Initiative
- Participate in voter registration outreach in underrepresented communities (optional in-person activity).
Voter Education Communications
- help develop effective design elements for the Voter Action Pinellas website and for voter education and volunteer training materials
- prepare volunteer training material.
- assist in website management
- assist in graphic design projects
Data Analytics
Work under the guidance of an experienced data analytics professional to:
- analyze data from the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections voter file to help build strategy for effective voter outreach
- build data solutions, tools, and capabilities to support voter outreach volunteers and educate voters
- work with leadership to identify process improvement opportunities, propose system modifications, and devise data management strategies to improve data quality and accessibility
- use statistical tools to identify, analyze, and interpret patterns and trends in complex voter data
Data Management
Work under the guidance of a data scientist to:
- learn and practice effective data management for voter outreach in common campaigns tools such as Reach and VAN (Voter Activation Network)
- manage the voter file provided by the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections
- assist in writing and implementing programmed solutions to better manage voter data and improve voter outreach
Interns should have some familiarity with (or a willingness to learn) R and/or Python.