County Registrar Seeks to Enlist Students as Poll Workers

Bespectacled elderly women may initially come to mind as typical poll workers, but the Alameda County Registrar of Voters hopes to add a new element to the mix: more high school and college students.

With statewide elections quickly approaching on June 3, officials at the Alameda County Registrar of Voters said they expect to fill its 800 polling stations with over 4,000 poll workers. Due to the high demand for poll workers, the county has attempted to enlist the help of hundreds of high school and college students.

"We always struggle to fully staff our polling places in Berkeley," said Guy Ashley, a spokesperson for the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. "We come away feeling that the Cal campus could be a great source of poll workers."

In previous elections, the county has seen strong participation by high school students. Ashley said he believes that informing UC Berkeley's student political groups about poll working opportunities-such as political experience and a wage ranging from $90 to $170-will compel more college students to work the polls.

Despite the county's attempts to rally the students through e-mail, Ashley said he only expects a few dozen UC Berkeley students to participate in June.

"We're just not making the kind of inroads into the campus as well as we would like," he said.

UC Berkeley senior Derek Yee, a poll worker during the 2006 U.S. general elections, said he thinks many students are too apathetic to register to vote, let alone work the polls.

According to Sarah Gold, former president of Cal Berkeley Democrats, many UC Berkeley students want to work the polls but are restricted by county voting laws.

"I was told I couldn't be a poll worker because I wasn't registered in Alameda County," she said. "It's very prohibitive."

Limitations aside, Ashley said he still believes that UC Berkeley students, along with high school students, could improve polling stations this June.

"I'm sure that June elections are particularly difficult to reach a student population. Still, we feel like we could do better. We've got to believe that," he said. "The inclusion of younger folks can really make the polling place a much more interesting, dynamic and well-rounded place because they bring a new kind of energy."

Tags: POLLS