Feds look to college students to fill election judge holes

STEPHEN MANNING

Associated Press    23 October 2004

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Local jurisdictions struggle every election to find enough people willing to work at the polls as election judges - the days are long, the pay can be low, and few people can find time to work shifts that can last all day. Most who take the jobs are elderly retirees.

With an expected heavy turnout for the upcoming election and the introduction of touch-screen voting technology in many states, the federal government is turning to a new group to help fill polling stations - college students.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has made grants to 15 colleges, universities and organizations that work with college students to recruit and pay students to work at the polls Nov. 2. The hope is not only to cover shortfalls, but to get students involved in the electoral process and instill civic duty in a group with traditionally low political participation.

"It's an awesome opportunity, to get to actually go to the polls, be part of the process and get people our age involved," said Steven Reeves, 19, a sophomore at Illinois Central College in Peoria, who has signed up for his college's program.

Election judges work inside polling places, checking voter registrations, setting up and monitoring the voting equipment, helping voters and sorting out problems. In most states, election judges must be at least 18 years old and registered to vote. Some states allow 17-year-olds to work at the polls.

There is always a shortage of people who have the time and are willing to work - many people can't take time off from work and some jurisdictions pay little more than minimum wage for a full day. In the 2000 election, an estimated 2 million people were needed but only 1.4 million were certified as election judges, according to EAC commissioner Ray Martinez.

The federal Help America Vote Act, which Congress passed in 2002, instructed the EAC to give grants to higher education institutions that develop plans to recruit nonpartisan student poll workers and work with local election boards. This year, it awarded about $627,000. The EAC plans to review the projects after the election to see what tactics worked and report to Congress.

"We were looking for submissions that would entice the greatest number of college students possible," Martinez said.

For the Golden Key International Honour Society, that meant rallying its 282 chapters at campuses nationwide to help find student election judges. The group's goal was to have 1,500 students work on Election Day, but already about 3,700 students have signed up as possible judges.

Working at the polls is a chance for students who may feel shut out of the political process to take part in the election, said Alex Perwich, executive director of Atlanta-based Golden Key, which received $130,000 from the EAC.

"You can either talk about it or do something about it," he said. "If your polling place is open on time and stays open, you have been instrumental in the implementation of democracy."

Both the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Baltimore plan to study of what motivates young people to sign up as election judges and what type of experience they have on Election Day.

The University of Maryland will use $25,000 to help pay roughly 175 students up to $200 each to work Nov. 2 in Prince George's County. Those students could make up for more than half of the shortfall of 300 election judge that Prince George's suffered in last election, according to Paul Hernnson, director of the university's Center for American Politics and Citizenship.

The University of Baltimore has signed up 300 students to work statewide and will provide at least 100 election judges for the city, which is chronically understaffed at polling places. After the election, the university will survey students and report to the EAC on what tactics worked in recruiting students and what kept them from taking part.

"There are barriers to participation," said John Willis, a former Maryland secretary of state and a faculty member at the university's school of public affairs. "Students don't get the whole day off, a lot of them work in the service sector. Taking time off is difficult."

Several schools are using their grants to send technologically savvy students who may be more comfortable with computers than older election judges into precincts that use electronic voting machines. The county clerk in Peoria County, Ill., JoAnn Thomas, plans to use students from Illinois Central College as troubleshooters on Election Day, helping voters with small problems that may arise.

"Our judges are mainly older," she said. "We are working with computers, so young people who understand how to fix little problems will be an added benefit."

Students say the money they will make working on Election Day is part of what enticed them to be election judges. But Illinois Central sophomore Michael Lang, 22, said he would have volunteered even if he wasn't paid.

"I thought it was a great opportunity to help out in the community and to get a better understanding of how the system works, how our votes actually go toward something," he said.