This Election Day, in a record-breaking election, voters flooded the polls. Montgomery County students volunteered in polling centers around the county to ensure a smooth voting process.
Students provided general assistance to voters during the voting process and operated any ballot-related machinery from as early as 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Volunteers are eligible to receive a stipend or SSL hours.
All volunteers were required to be a registered voter and complete a basic online training this year, due to COVID-19. The training consisted of reading materials on how to facilitate the voting process and how to interact with voters, followed by multiple short quizzes.
“[The readings] emphasized the right to vote and [and how a worker] cannot deny it,” Thomas S. Wootton High School junior and Election Day volunteer Nicolas DePalma said. “Unless a voter has voted already, in no situation can you reject a voter from being able to vote.”
At polling locations, poll workers guided voters through four main stages: check-in, ballot pick-up, ballot marking and submission and an exit table. Once a volunteer confirmed a voter’s date of birth and address, they printed out a voter authority card, which contains a voter’s basic identification information and ballot style.
Next, the voter took their card to a ballot pick-up table, where a volunteer gave them their correct ballot style, based on their precinct’s corresponding congressional elections.
“The number of polling places on Election Day this year in MoCo was very limited. Because it was limited, instead of [requiring] people to go to their specific district or precinct, they [could] go to any polling place,” DePalma said. As a result, all polling places had ballots for every district.
At a ballot marking device area, volunteers instructed voters on how to use electronic marking devices and correctly insert their ballots into their machines, and answered any questions they had.
After voters finished casting their ballots, poll workers directed them to an exit table, where voters returned privacy shields and received an “I Voted” sticker from a worker.
All poll workers were required to wear masks and had the option to wear a face shield and gloves as a precaution against COVID-19. Voters were not permitted to enter the polling building unless they were wearing masks. If voters refused to wear a mask, the poll workers at Thomas S. Wootton High School sent them to the Board of Elections, an alternate location.
Volunteers were also encouraged to regularly use hand sanitizer after interacting with voters and to keep their physical distance. Plexiglass shields were set up at check-in stations and ballot tables, where voters and workers interacted the most. Social distancing reminder stickers were also placed on the floors and walls.
“We really just did our best to keep people separated, but there was a certain amount of … everyone being close together that you just really couldn’t avoid,” Thomas S. Wootton High School senior and Election Day volunteer Jacob Kaplan-Davis said. “There were few parts where I felt a little uncomfortable in [being] close to [a voter], but in many ways my want to do this stems from the fact that if someone’s going to get [COVID-19], it better be me than a 75 or 85-year-old person.”
Despite COVID-19 safety precautions, poll workers still experienced a sense of community and shared enthusiasm while completing their civic duties. Kaplan-Davis said that whenever a poll worker checked in a first-time voter, they would announce it and the whole room would cheer for them.
“Even if it [was] just 14 hours, I still felt like I had you know nice acquaintances [because] everybody was nice,” DePalma said. “It didn’t feel entirely like working per se, but kind of like hanging out and just helping people vote.”
Article by Avery Wang of Richard Montgomery High School
Graphic by Xiomara Choque of Montgomery College