In an email to SF State students on October 19, President Robert Corrigan encouraged students to get involved in this year’s election process.

Aside from going to the polls to vote on Tuesday, November 2, another way that SF State students can participate in the democratic process is by serving as an election day poll worker.

The SF Department of Elections has encouraged college students to sign up as Election Day poll workers and the department will work with SF State to ensure that students who participate as poll workers receive credit for missing class on November 2.

Students will also receive a stipend of either $112 or $155 for successfully completing the mandatory 3-hour training session and Election Day poll coverage.

“There are two positions a poll worker has to choose from,” said Edgar Cruz of the SF Board of Elections. “After passing a short 10-question assessment test, they can choose to be an inspector or clerk.”

A San Francisco County poll clerk receives a stipend of $112 to work from
6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and is responsible for verifying that voters are in the correct voting precinct by looking up their name and address in the county’s voter roster. Clerks also hand out ballots to voters and give them instructions on how use the provided materials.

An inspector, on the other hand, receives a stipend of $155, but with that comes more responsibility. He or she must pick up the ballots at City Hall the night before the election, open and supervise the voting site, report unlawful activity inside the facility and safeguard the cast ballots until a county sheriff picks them up at the end of the night.

“It’s a lot to ask of someone,” said Cruz. “But if we don’t want what happened in Florida to happen here, the people have to volunteer to do this.”

Each county sets their own pay rate for poll workers according to their budget, said a representative from Acting Director of Elections John Arntz’s office. SF County pays a little more than other counties in northern California as a means of making sure those who have signed up actually show up on time and stay until the ballots are picked up.

Although the county does everything it can to have a sheriff retrieve the ballots by 9 p.m., there have been occasions when the ballots were not picked up until midnight. Arntz’s representative continued to say that should a student choose to work as an inspector, he or she should be prepared to deal with any glitch that may arise.

“People should not sign up to be poll workers to get paid because there isn’t any money in it,” said a representative of Gail Pellerin, county clerk of Santa Cruz. “They should do it to serve a civic duty.”

Although all of the election officers [X]press interviewed for this article stated that their poll worker positions are full for this November’s election, they are all accepting names of qualified and interested students for their waiting list.

“As in every election, people who sign up get ill or just don’t show up,” said Cruz. “In 2000 it was like pulling teeth to get people to sign up. This year, we have 5000 people signed up. I think more people signed up to work because there is more at stake than in 2000. If this election goes to shit, people want to be able to say it wasn’t their fault.”

Cruz noted that the state designated deadline for training to be a poll worker is October 29, therefore, all interested parties should call or visit the county election board that they registered to vote with as soon as possible.

“I don’t care who people vote for,” said Joshua Castro, SF State’s associated students vice president of external affairs. “What matters to me is that they vote and get civically involved.”