Students train for election board slots
Trinity High School juniors Michael Bury, Delaney Elling, Natalie Cappelli and Trey Banco look for their family members in the electronic pollbooks. High school students attended a training session on the mechanical basics of setting up the machines, how to help those who are voting and technical aspects of being a clerk on voting day.
Wes Parry, assistant elections director, helps train two dozen students at Trinity High School on how to work the electronic voting equipment at the polls. Students were trained to fill in at precinct-level election boards.
For the past several years, the Washington County elections office beat the bushes twice a year to find people willing to work at precinct-level election boards.
This year, teachers from two school districts and Intermediate Unit 1 expressed an interest in filling the paid positions with students interested in the election process.
At Trinity High School Wednesday, two dozen students turned out to learn more about election day procedures and have hands-on training with touch-screen voting machines introduced eight years ago and the county’s relatively new electronic pollbooks that list registered voters.
“I really did not expect a group this size,” said Wes Parry, assistant elections director, told a packed room of students.
The introductory session was designed to let students decide if they’d like to be part of a “flying squad” of election board workers who can fill in where needed on short notice, such as substituting for someone who takes ill on election day or working in some of the county’s 184 precincts that aren’t yet fully staffed.
They started with mechanical basics of setting up voting machines and ended with packing them for their trip to the Courthouse Square office building at the end election day, an in-service day at Trinity, so students won’t miss any classes.
Students will likely be needed as clerks, and Parry stressed they should avoid confrontations, referring any problems that may arise to the judge of elections for the precinct.
One student asked about identification cards.
The state Suprement Court ruled Pennsylvania’s law unconstitutional, so the only only voters who need to show ID are those who are voting in a precinct for the first time.
Parry drilled students in removing the machine’s memory card at the end of day and securing it, because he and the elections office staff don’t want to hunt for it at 2 a.m. because it was left in a machine stacked among 500 in the back of a truck.
Election board members earn about $100 for working a full shift, which lasts from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Because those under age 18 aren’t permitted to exceed eight-hour shifts, Parry said he’d likely schedule students for half-days.
Unlike adult workers, the student helpers were asked to have parents or guardians sign permission slips.
Mackenzie Sheppard, 17, called the process “pretty simple. Next year, I will be voting, so I just wanted to see it.”
Olivia Gray, a senior in Trinity’s Junior ROTC program, attended the training in uniform.
“Since my brother, Colton, just joined the Army a couple of months ago, it’s really affected me,” she said. “For me, being involved in this is important. I just thought it would be good to be here and support the military.” She demonstrated use of the e-pollbook for the group at Parry’s direction. “I think I could pick up on it pretty fast,” she said.
Gray asked what to do if someone arrived at a poll hoping to register to vote. In Pennsylvania, election day registration is prohibited, and the deadline was Oct. 6.
Mikayla DeMarino, a 17-year-old senior, has been a student council representative since sixth grade, so she’s participated in the political process in school. “I’d rather do it for the experience than for the money,” she said of an election day assignment.
Sam Trapuzzano, a 17-year-old junior, helped debate teacher Mary Ann Berty recruit the pool of students through networking.
“It looks pretty tough, but we learned a lot today,” he said.
Michael Bury, 17, a junior, is contemplating a career in law, jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the electoral process and he’ll be taking an American government class next summer.
If he finds himself working at a poll in a community he’s never before visited, “I’ll probably be a little nervous at first,” Bury said. “But I’ll have to get to know everyone first and take it from there.”
Parry, who sent a letter to Washington County school districts to gauge their interest level, also conducted training last week at Ringgold High School and on Thursday at IU1 Educational Campus at Clark, an alternative education program in Washington.