Poll working is a seasonal profession that sees its average age, as well as a general lack of willing participants, growing. A new program on campus attempts to recruit UT students to the process.
The College Student Poll Worker training program offers students $150 and a free T-shirt for coming out and working the polls on Nov. 2. In order to qualify for the program, students must be registered to vote in the county, submit an application, watch three online videos, pass a test and attend on-site training.
A grant from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission made the program possible. UT was among 14 higher education institutions and one non-profit corporation to receive funding.
Amy Gibson, director of communications and public programming for the Baker Center, said the program used the $61,000 of grant money to pay for promotional items and T-shirts, a brand new website for the initiative at http://www.workthepolls.com and training videos. Part of the grant money, along with aid from the Knox County Election Commission, will go to paying the $150 each to student poll workers.
“It’s possible to stretch $61,000 really far in order to accomplish the goals of the grant,” Gibson said.
Laurin Riggins, junior in psychology and political science and student coordinator for the program, said material from three instructional online videos makes up the test would-be pollsters need to pass.
The three training videos delve into an overview of elections in Tennessee, what poll workers do, what they cannot do based on state law, what they should do in case of Election Day problems and machine operation on Election Day.
The on-site training on Oct. 16 will familiarize poll workers with the process and serve as a rehearsal of Election Day.
“It’s different seeing it on a video and actually going through it and setting it up yourself,” Riggins explained.
Come Election Day on Nov. 2, poll workers will come in at 7:30 a.m. to set up and prepare for polls opening at 8 a.m. They will stay until the polls close at 8 p.m. Riggins, who interned with the Knox County Election Commission and was also a poll worker during the Tennessee primaries on Aug. 5, said her work in the UC went relatively smoothly on primary day except for one problem: people come to the wrong polling place.
“(They were) thinking they could just vote here because it was in the UC,” she said. “Professors would come in, staff, faculty.”
But where you vote depends on where you live. The Knox County Election Commission’s website, at http://www.knoxcounty.org/election/index.php, tells citizens their designated voting location. Just click on the “Where do I vote?” tab.
Voters can also check their voter registration status at the Work the Polls website.
Other duties student poll workers will engage in, she said, include assisting those with disabilities, protecting ballot secrecy and preventing voting intimidation.
She said a program like the College Student Poll Worker training program is crucial, especially with the shortfall of poll workers in the country. “Administering fair and accurate elections, you can’t do that without the correct number of poll workers,” she said. In addition, specifically having new poll workers that are young can come in handy.
“Young people do tend to pick up the technology a little more quickly,” she said.
But also the program introduces young people to Election Day, she said.
“We want this next generation of young people to be working at the polls and being engaged in the political process and being active voters and active participants in democracy,” she said. “And this is a way to energize young people about voting and elections and the democratic process.”