‘Get out there and vote’: Poll workers on volunteering
While most students only spend a few minutes at the polls on election day, some students are at the polls for up to eight hours, directing lines and handing out ballots as student poll workers.
Katherine Jeng, a Texas civic ambassador and democracy fellow for the Campus Vote Project, has worked the polls for the past five elections. Jeng said she noticed a lack of voter literacy on Rice’s campus, which inspired her to become a poll clerk for the first time.
“I think I’ve also always been really passionate about social justice and how we can use our voices for change,” Jeng said. “And as I’ve gotten to Rice, I saw how people didn’t really care about the election. There wasn’t a lot of voter awareness on campus, especially with elections coming up. And so that was something I really wanted to fix.”
Jeng said that her time as a poll worker helped her make voting in elections a priority in her life.
“Being an election judge or election clerk has made me even more civically aware, and I vote in every election now,” Jeng said. “I vote in the primaries, I will vote in local elections, and that’s been a really big point in my life to make sure I get out there and vote for every election.”
Jeng said her favorite responsibility is demystifying the voting process for students and helping them to cast their vote.
“I really like having people vote and learn how to cast their ballots, making sure that they know who they’re voting for and streamlining the process,” Jeng said. “I just really liked helping them exercise their [right to] vote in any way possible.”
Poll clerks can also apply to be a presiding judge, who oversees election day logistics. Karyn Fu is the current presiding judge for Rice’s polling location. Fu said she has been preparing for the presidential election for months, ensuring that poll clerks are trained, the Welcome Center is set up and voting registration is being promoted at Rice.
“I think I also just felt very proud because in high school I was pretty politically involved,” Fu, a Martel College sophomore, said. “After the elections, tearing everything down, you [see] how many people voted. We’re able to see how many students voted as well. I think seeing that we were able to help thousands of people vote … it was such a cool feeling that I personally was able to help.”
Fu said at first, she found the role intimidating.
“There was a lot of media coverage around it, a lot of people were voting, so I was like, ‘Oh my God. I can’t mess up,’” Fu said. “It was something really scary at first, but with time, I realized that, yes, it is a big responsibility, but with that, you have so much power to facilitate people’s access to voting and make sure that elections and voting are accessible to everyone.”
While being a presiding judge or a poll clerk carries responsibility, Fu said that anyone can be a poll clerk or presiding judge. Historically, poll clerks have been older citizens, but Fu said that anyone can get trained and help in elections, which is what makes Rice’s on-campus polling location unique.
“People see who’s working the polls, and it’s old people, so they assume there’s a bunch of qualifications, a bunch of things you have to do or a big time commitment to do it. But it’s really not,” Fu said. “So being able to have young people help other young people go vote is really special.”
Veronica Reyna, the associate director of Civic Engagement at the Center for Civic Engagement at Rice, said the student poll worker program is a way to not only uphold one’s responsibility to vote but also one’s obligation to create accessible and high-quality elections.
“There’s a responsibility for participation in making our democracy work, and one side of it is voting, the other side is the implementation of high-quality elections, and that is an equal responsibility,” Reyna said. “There’s a lot of misinformation about the quality of our elections. One of the best ways to make sure that they’re free and fair, accessible and they run smoothly is to participate in them and kind of do your part and make it so.”
Fu and Jeng said they are especially excited about voting this term — their first presidential elections as poll workers — which will be the most hectic election either of them have ever experienced.
“I like it when the lines are really long, if that makes sense,” Jeng said. “This year is going to be the craziest, because it’s a presidential election, and I’ve never witnessed a presidential election … I always am so empowered by the people who are willing to stay in line and wait. People who are like ‘This is important to me.’”
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