New program to involve college students as election workers this year in St. Joe County

Don’t be surprised if you see more college students helping with this spring’s primary and this fall’s general elections in St. Joseph County. The St. Joseph County Clerk’s Elections and Voter Registration Office announced that it recently gained more than $40,000 to hire the students as election workers.

The funding from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission is targeted toward engaging college students in civic education and involvement with their local communities.

In this case, the students will be involved through a program called Work the Vote, which has a partnership with Indiana University South Bend and Elizabeth Bennion, political science professor and IUSB’s director of community engagement and its American Democracy Project.

Two non-partisan program coordinators are being hired to implement and manage the program and its college intern. Coordinators will use social media and other outreach efforts to recruit and educate students about the importance and benefits of working on election day, on which students can earn $160 to $260.

“College students are well positioned to understand the increasingly computerized election process and have the energy required to make it through the typical 15- hour workday of a poll worker,” Bennion said in a press release. “As a civic educator who works with college students who have deep roots in our community, I am excited about this opportunity to engage them as election day workers and to let the broader community know how critical young people are in making our elections work.”

The coordinators will work part time in two 13-week intervals, each around the May primary and November general election, along with four weeks in 2025 to document best practices and successes of the program.

St. Joseph County needs nearly 700 election workers of all ages. Find more information about how to help at www.sjcindiana.com/1683/Work-the-Election.

For more information about Work the Vote, send email to workthevote@sjcindiana.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: College students help as election workers in St. Joseph County