Many of Brett Crueger’s Hazen High students were too young to vote Tuesday. But his teens weren’t idle this election day.
More than 140 of Cruger’s social studies students worked the frontlines of today’s election — as poll workers at 50 polling stations throughout South King County.
Wearing blue T-shirts that read, “Election 08 Class of 09,” the students worked in teams of two and three. They began just before 6 a.m. and didn’t quit until 10 p.m. They spent those 16 hours greeting voters, distributing ballots and explaining voting procedures. The students worked alongside the 16 or so poll workers at each polling place, most much older than the teens.
“It’s tiring, but interesting,” said Hazen senior and poll worker Brittany Granger, 17, Tuesday at the entrance and exit of Hazen’s polling station. Granger tended a constant line of voters, young and old. One man entered wearing a hat wrapped with a red, white and blue hat band.
Granger said her work was rewarding — civicly and financially.
Each Hazen poll worker earned about $150 Tuesday. That money is going to the senior class, which will likely use the funds to lower the cost of senior ball tickets. Crueger expected his students’ Tuesday wages would total about $20,000.
“They’re taking part in democracy and helping out the senior class as well,” he said.
Crueger’s always had students work at polling places. But until this year, those students organized their work themselves.
This year Crueger signed up his students for Youth With a Vision, a program established by King County Elections to turn high school students and civic students into poll workers. Youth With a Vision is part of a larger poll-worker recruitment program called Partnership in Democracy. King County Elections started Partnership in Democracy this summer to add numbers to its ranks of poll workers to meet Tuesday’s increased voter turnout. Partnership in Democracy is intended for non-partisan groups. Each poll worker completed three hours of training.
Crueger’s students earn credit for working the polls. But poll work isn’t required. That’s why he was surprised by the high student turnout.
“I expected when I put it out there that I would get 30 kids, which is the minimum for the program,” he said. “But it went from 30 to 60 to 90 to 120 to 144.”
Most his poll workers are seniors. A couple juniors and sophomores also signed up. A poll worker has to be at least 16.
Crueger, who took Tuesday off from school, spent the day visiting his students at their polling places, which included several schools and churches, plus a country club and fire station.
“The girls assigned to the fire station are disappointed they have to serve firefighters all day,” Crueger joked Tuesday morning.
Hazen senior Venice Wong, 17, worked the polls during the August and February primaries. She worked the polls again Tuesday at Hazen, but for herself, not Youth With a Vision. She’s putting her daily wages toward college.
Wong worked Tuesday as a poll judge, which means she handed out ballots. Her work Tuesday earned her civics credits. But she said she mostly worked Tuesday because it was “something to do.” Wong and her fellow poll workers got the day off from classes.
“I wish I could vote,” Wong said. “This is the big one, Obama versus McCain. I just get stuck with whatever happens… I guess I can change it in four years.”
Hazen senior Stephanie Faull also wished she could vote Tuesday. Her 18th birthday is just over a month away. That’s partly why she signed up as a poll worker — to catch a glimpse of the election process.
“It’s good community service hours and I’ve never done it before, so I wanted to see what it’s like,” Faull said. “And I’ve never voted before ’cause I’m not old enough, so I kind of want to see what goes on.”
Faull and senior Jay Kim, 16, sat at a table in the back of Hazen’s hall-turned polling place Tuesday. The girls were responsible for provisional voters. Those are voters not on the master list at Hazen’s front door. Those voters include those who can’t get to their assigned polling place, have new addressees or are registered elsewhere.
Tuesday morning Faull and Kim helped a 25-year-old, first-time voter, a woman who lost her absentee ballot and a woman who last voted in 1999 in Centralia, where she is still registered.
A young woman with a child also approached the girls Tuesday morning. Her name wasn’t on the list Granger held at the polling place’s entrance.
“What do I do?” she asked.
Kim looked up the woman’s ballot number and Faull handed her the long sheet of paper. She told her to print her name and address on a log, then fill out the ballot and bring it back. She’s soon back with the completed ballot.
“Now what do I do?”
Faull handed the woman a security envelope for the ballot, and once sealed told her to drop the ballot in the big, black box in front of the station. She also handed the woman the strip of paper printed with her reference number. She can track her ballot after Monday.
“Thank you for voting,” Faull said.
Granger was with that big black box at the station’s entrance and exit. The machine is called an AccuVote. She showed absentee voters how to drop their ballot into the slot on the side and poll voters how to feed their completed ballots into the scanner on top.
Granger also helped direct voters without a voter registration card to their ballots by searching for their names in a thick stack of papers. And she offered “I Voted” stickers to exiting voters.
Tuesday was Granger’s first time as a poll worker. She said she enjoyed watching people exit the station, satisfied they had made a difference.
Those voters also passed on their satisfaction to Faull and Kim.
“Yay! I feel good. Thank you!” the woman from Centralia said to the pair after filling out her ballot.
