What if the scariest thing to happen this Halloween is…not preparing for the upcoming midterm election?
To combat any jump scares around local ballot measures, Khmer Girls in Action and We Are California are teaming up to host a Party to the Polls: Haunted Mansion on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 2 to 6 p.m.
“We are combining political education and the Halloween spirit because, you know, elections are scary sometimes,” said Kelliana Lim, Communications Coordinator for Khmer Girls in Action. KGA, a youth-led community nonprofit in Long Beach, has hosted a haunted house/maze event every election season since 2010.
Student members and KGA staffers select ballot measures they feel affect their community the most and create an immersive haunted house based on those issues. The goal, Lim said, is to provide a fun way for community members to better understand what is going on this election season.
“The haunted maze really showcases a really fun ‘educ-tainment’ type of event for the community to understand how certain ballot measures will impact them and young people,” Lim said.
This year, KGA honed their haunted house on three ballot measures: Proposition 3, which would tax top earners in the state to fund healthcare and education. Proposition 39, which would require California voters to present government-issued identification when voting at the polls. And Proposition 43, which would change the state’s constitution to require local ballot measures related to extending, increasing or proposing specific taxes driven by citizens to receive a two-thirds vote.
Saturday’s haunted house will feature a spooky maze of rooms visitors will trek through as they are greeted by ghosts and goblins who will foreshadow what kind of impact these ballot measures could have on their community.
This year, KGA is partnering with We Are California, a coalition of advocacy groups across the state, to host a ballot party during the haunted house. Visitors are encouraged to bring their ballot to the haunt, and on a separate floor from the ghouls and goblins, they can get their questions answered.
Aaron Robertson, a Senior Director of Coalition for Catalyst California — the nonprofit, civil rights organization behind We Are California, said their group provides toolkits and other resources to KGA and other groups across the state hosting ballot parties.
“One of the cool things about this campaign is that it is very distributed,” Robertson said. “We’ve been providing resources and toolkits for about 500 ballot parties across the state.” But Robertson said organizations like KGA really take the lead on what these ballot education events look and feel like. Some groups did a 5K run to the polls; others did dance parties and lucha libre events.
We Are California also provides legal trainers who teach community members to become vote protectors on Election Day. Vote protectors identify any intimidation efforts at polling sites.
“We have a centralized reporting mechanism where we are gathering that information and working with the A.G.’s office to triage a response,” Robertson said. Last week, KGA, along with Long Beach Forward, trained community volunteers who signed up to be vote protectors.
“Some people really want to show up for their community and [becoming a vote protector] is a way to do that — they want to go to places that are most at risk for voter intimidation,” Robertson said.
Photo courtesy of Khmer Girls in Action.
Beyond ballot education, Saturday’s haunted house will also have a trunk-or-treat in the Youth Movement Education Center parking lot. There will also be face painting, a donut-eating contest, a costume contest, music and a party area in case some people “are too scared to go inside,” Lim said.
To learn more about Khmer Girls in Action and their haunted house event on Saturday, Oct. 25, visit their website.