A call for Bloomsburg students to volunteer as poll workers for the upcoming Nov. 7 elections was issued with more than twice the number of workers needed responding. The students responded to a need for workers to be stationed at both on-campus and off-campus sites including Kehr Union, Town Hall and Caldwell Consistory. But what exactly are these students signing up for?
“Working at a polling place is one of the basic things any citizen can do to keep democracy alive, and it is one of the most patriotic things that any person can do,” said Tim Pelton, Bloomsburg’s civic engagement coordinator.
Working the polls is a mighty cause, yet one that is often overlooked. The need for students to get engaged extends further than just trying to get helpers.
“It helps individual people see democracy in action and see, firsthand, how votes are counted in order to ensure that every vote counts. But is also matters on a much larger scale as it’s only through citizens, giving up their day to work the polls that we are able to maintain democracy in this country,” said Brandon Boothe, a freshman political science major and the secretary for Bloomsburg University’s Democrats, a club that advertised to its members the need for poll workers.
The job requires an all day-commitment, with individuals working from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Workers are expected to stay at their assigned polling location for the entire time period. In Columbia County, the position pays around $145 for the day, according to Chief Registrar and Director of Elections, Matthew Repasky.
“[The job] involves either looking up names in the poll book and checking them in and then having them sign the poll book-voting,” said Repasky.
As the Director of Elections, Repasky is responsible for taking the new list of interested students and picking out the “right workers with the right locations.” The experience gained from this election will allow them to work in the spring primary and then the presidential election. The work of poll workers is never ending, and now the Husky community gets to join the overlooked advances of democracy.