William Fremd is one of the many high schools that provide students the opportunity to sign up to be an election judge. This year, 53 Fremd students applied to become judges. These students spend Election day passing out ballots, taking care of any technical issues, and spend an entire day before-hand training and taking an assessment.
Senior Fathima Shaikh discusses the training that involves immense commitment.
“I went to the Country Club in Mount Prospect for training which was four hours long and I had to skip school for it. It’s a lot of commitment,” Shaikh said. “The training had three parts, and then we took a test at the end. If you pass, you get to become an Election Judge.”
The Chicago Board of Elections has hired 8,100 election judges to help this election. Many of those judges are students.
Elections often require a significant number of election judges to help things run smoothly. High school students can help fill the necessary positions, especially when there’s a shortage of adult volunteers. This is especially helpful in less populated areas where recruiting election judges may be more challenging.
Social studies teacher Amanda Schmidt coordinates student election judging and highlights the importance of having students take this opportunity.
“The state of Illinois and specifically Cook County has made a really big push to try to get young people involved in, hopefully, making voter turnout for young people go up, but also it’s a need.” Schmidt said. “We need to have a lot of election judges to run an election.”
Illinois law requires student election judges to meet certain criteria which is at least a GPA of 3.0. You do not have to be 18, however, you do have to be a junior or senior in high school and everyone must complete the required training before election day.
State election law requires election judges to complete four hours of training prior to each election in order to ensure that everything runs smoothly when serving on Election Day. A student judge must attend and satisfactorily complete the course and online assessment in order to pass.
Students must be confident in their abilities and knowledge to provide the service necessary to ensure that the voting process runs smoothly and efficiently.
“You have to make sure that you know what you’re doing, and just coming to the voting site and trying to learn what you’re supposed to do could prevent some people from voting if they feel like it’s disorganized.” Schmidt said.
Student election judges directly participate in the democratic process. They gain a deeper understanding of how elections work, the importance of voting, and the role citizens play in a democracy.
“You get to be a part of a democratic process and understand that democratic process better that a lot of people throughout the world don’t have the opportunity to participate in,” Schmidt said. “Allowing for those natural, organic conversations to take place while working at a polling place can teach young people a lot about life, about voting, about democracy. So I think it’s a great opportunity that hopefully helps them to understand how important it is to be able to go and vote.”
Students are often left with an accomplished feeling once Election Day is over. They feel more connected and involved with their community as a result of participating in the election process.
“People were so nice and respectful to me, and I felt accomplished cause I was doing something helpful and important, like helping my community. It just felt good,” Shaikh said.
