Wanted: Teen Poll Workers
A Way to Get Involved on Election Day

By SARA SCHAEFER MUNOZ
Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal

Even if you're too young to vote, there may be a chance for you to do your civic duty at the polls this November.

Across the country, election officials are drawing on students-as young as 16 in some states-to help fill the shortage of poll workers, who are usually older Americans. Poll workers are the people who are on hand at polling places to help election officials keep records and help voters figure out the ballots.

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Wanted: Teen Poll Workers Across the country, election officials are drawing on students--as young as 16 in some states--to help fill the shortage of poll workers

It's happening in Florida, where election officials came under intense fire after voters complained that disorganization and poorly functioning ballot machines botched the 2000 contest. "I thought after the 2000 election, with all the criticism of poll workers in Florida, we'd never find another one," says Kay Clem, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.

But teenagers, she says, are stepping in to take the place of veteran workers who have given up. Ms. Clem hopes to find at least 100 17-and 18-year-olds to explain the touch-screen tabulators and offer assistance to voters who look confused at polling stations around her county.

In some states, laws allowing minors to help out in elections have been on the books since the 1990s. New Hampshire, for example, passed legislation in 1997 allowing 17-year-olds to work the polls, primarily to get them involved in the electoral process. Pennsylvania passed a law in 2002 giving 17-year-olds electoral responsibility so the state can meet poll-worker demand. A law passed in Indiana in 2002 allowed county boards of election to tap teenagers as young as 16 for the municipal elections last year.

In Berks County, Pa., election officials have found that local students have yet another plus: They often know Spanish. This is a real benefit in the city of Reading, the county seat, which is 40% Hispanic, says county election director Kurt Bellman.

Robin Downs Colbert, elections administrator for Prince George's County, Md., says her county uses money-$125 per election and $25 per training session-and the lure of experience to put on a teenager's résumé. "I can use the extra cash, "says Oma Crawford, an 18-year-old recruit from Landover, Md. "And I want to see how the voting process is done."

Not all states are sold on the idea. St. Louis County, Mo., hired teenagers for the last state and local elections, with mixed reviews. "When five o'clock in the morning rolls around, they don't want to get out of bed," says Judy Taylor, county elections director. But she adds: "The ones that do show are great workers."