Standing outside a voting site on East 169th Street Nov. 8, Patrick Ferguson and Andrew Lanoha, clad in black T-shirts reading "Election Protection," held stacks of voters' rights pamphlets. Less than a mile away, a couple of their classmates from Columbia University's School of Law were standing outside P.S. 64 on Walton Avenue.

The students were among 65 volunteers recruited to work on the Voter Enfranchisement Project, a new non-partisan effort to monitor elections in the Bronx launched by Bronx Defenders, a non-profit organization that provides free legal representation to Bronx residents charged with crimes. Staff members of the Highbridge Community Life Center and Mothers on the Move, among other local organizations, also volunteered.

"Voting's important," said Molly McOwen, one of the students volunteering at P.S. 64. "We're here to ensure everyone has the right to vote."

Part of a nationwide voters' rights protection effort, the voters were assessing the problems at Bronx voting sites, its director said.

"We can see the problems very clearly," said Maggie Williams, the project's director. "And the thing is, the solutions are not insurmountable. Better training and resources for poll workers" would help ensure people can fulfill their right to vote.

On Nov. 8, the volunteers monitored 12 voting sites in the 84th Assembly District, which includes Highbridge, a fraction of the hundreds of sites in the Bronx. They noted problems with voting machines - five at five different sites did not work properly. But most problems were minor and resolved quickly, they said.

They also met people who wanted to vote but could not because they were on parole. In New York State, any person in jail or on parole is not allowed to vote by law.

"You have the right to vote. It's the law," reads the pamphlets the volunteers distributed Nov. 8. Its front cover reads, "Bronx Voters' Bill of Rights." The pamphlet includes information on registering to vote, absentee voting and voting at the polls.

"There are a lot of little problems that people can have" when they go to vote, Williams said. "Not knowing where to go, not knowing what time the polls open and close, and thinking they may need identification in order to vote."

The volunteers were on the frontlines, Williams explained, part of a bigger effort to ensure people retain their right to vote. Impact Law, a non-partisan group of law school students, is one national organization associated with the project.

"This integrated approach is a new thing," she said. "We have the people in the field, lawyers ready to file complaints, a national hotline for complaints and a way to track data."

Beyond protecting elections, the project increases participation in elections, Williams said.

"And I think it's really fun bringing the legal and community service agencies together," she said.