Thanks to democracyLIVE! 2008, high school students all over the county are getting ready to witness, well, democracy live on Election Day.
About four hundred of them have signed up for the program, which provides students who are at least 16 years old the opportunity to be poll workers on Election Day. They represent 23 public and private schools – nearly all in the county.
In trainings after school, they’ve been learning how to set up, take down and operate eSlates, the county’s electronic voting machines. Of course, being the millenials that they are, they actually need little instruction on anything remotely technical.
Such was the case last week at Menlo-Atherton High School, where a two-hour training class of a dozen students had little trouble setting up eSlates and casting votes on them in a mock election of dead presidents. John Adams seemed to be the favorite, followed by the students’ Write-Ins of each other.
Utterances of “this is so cool!” and “I want to vote again!” were frequent.
But there was plenty of serious sit-at-your-desk instruction too, with Cynthia Greer from the Elections Office explaining the party-driven nature of primaries. She broke down critical Election Day procedures like checking in voters using the street index and roster, and offered quick lessons in how to best provide assistance.
For students like 17-year-old Tara Galvez, a senior at Menlo-Atherton, this is a second-best option with voting privileges still a year or more away.
“It’s my first chance to be a civil servant and do something for my country,” Galvez said. “If I can’t vote yet, then I figured I’ll help out in a different way.”
Galvez is excited about the opportunity.
“I’m looking forward to seeing all the different people who vote,” she said.
In order to participate, students must be U.S. citizens, hold a grade point average of at least 2.5, and have permission from their teacher and parent or guardian. They’ll spend the entire day at the polls alongside veteran poll workers, showing up at 6 a.m. to get the Election Day party started and staying until 9 p.m. after closing to ensure all is properly shut down.
Students are paid $125 for the time they spend in training and their service on Election Day, though students at some schools, such as Burlingame High School, are choosing to donate their earnings to receive credit for community service instead. Students are eligible to receive up to 20 hours of community service credit for participating.
Diane Martinelli, who teaches American government to seniors at Menlo-Atherton, is a big fan of the program since it launched last year. She hung around last week while the students underwent training in her classroom, and said about 25 of them from Menlo-Atherton will be working the polls on Tsunami Tuesday.
“If they get this opportunity now, they’ll be more active participants in their democracy later on,” Martinelli said. ”There’s so few 18- to 25-year-olds who vote, but these guys probably will vote.”
She said this year’s students are feeling “excitement about the election, becoming involved and being a citizen” and that she got nothing but positive feedback from the ones who did it last year.
She also mentioned how excited the poll workers were to have the students there, as they play a key role in ensuring our polling places are adequately staffed. It will take 2,000 poll workers to staff the county’s 448 precincts on Feb. 5. That, and the students are whizzes with the eSlates. We’re looking for plenty more to work the June 3 Statewide Direct Primary and the Nov. 4 Presidential General Election.
Legislation signed in 2006 lowered the age requirement for student poll worker programs in California to 16, permitting legions more students to participate (previously, only high school seniors had been allowed).
democracyLIVE! is a unique, hands-on opportunity for students to participate in democracy and understand the principles our country was founded on, even if they’re not old enough to vote. But if you don’t want to take it from us, listen to the teacher.
“Hearing it in class is one thing, but witnessing it is another,” Martinelli said. “There’s nothing like hands-on teaching or hands-on learning.”
awesome!!!=D