During normal election years, it’s typically retired people who step in to act as poll workers every fourth November. But many of America’s elderly are staying home to protect themselves from COVID-19, and now the country’s youth have stepped up to take the reins of civic responsibility.
In a funny turn of events, a web developer in San Francisco that had originally created a website to see if people would help buy pizza for those waiting in line to vote at polling stations—the aptly named Pizza to the Polls—pivoted towards a model of recruiting poll station workers which people informed him were going to be dangerously low in number this year.
This required a change of name as well, to Power the Polls, which has so far recruited 450,000 of the “next generation of poll workers,” 200,000 above their original target of a quarter million.
The majority of people signing up are between 18-35 years of age, the opposite end of the spectrum to the normal battalion of America’s volunteer poll workers, more than 70% of whom are between 60-70 years of age.
Along with age comes an increased susceptibility to the coronavirus, and in states like Alaska, 95% of Anchorage’s previous volunteers declined to participate this year.
Power the Polls is uniting youth volunteers, associations, and corporations to ensure the poll workers have access to personal protective equipment, training, and pay in some cases.
They’ve also relied on their corporate partners for recruitment, and their willingness to give their workers paid time off, or try and recruit poll workers from among their staff.
Civil associations like the AARP and the Association of Young Americans have also been involved, and have helped educate voters about the need for poll workers and in helping ensure that once they sign up they show up.
“There is a need for us to sound the alarm,” says John Hishta, AARP’s senior vice president of campaigns to Fast Company, “and that’s why we’re working intergenerationally with these other folks.”
Fast Company details all the things a volunteer poll station worker is responsible for, such as tidying up and helping people who have trouble, as well as keeping the machines functional and reporting polling data.
MORE: How Big Companies Are Helping to Fix a Shortage of Poll Workers in the US
This year they will also be working with PPE the whole time, constantly sanitizing the operating space, and helping people maintain safe social distancing practices.
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