By Benjamin Fu
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Monday, Nov. 6, 2006, The OG, features

With the upcoming election Tuesday, voters are scrambling to decide which candidates to choose, while candidates are trying everything to gain popularity and attract more voters. But perhaps the most overlooked participant in the election is the election judge.

On Oct. 30, I spent the last four periods of school in Lincoln Square Mall attending a class on becoming an election judge, a role that I will serve in this year. Since I had little experience with the election process, let alone becoming an election judge, attending the class and learning about Election Day was an interesting experience.

In reality, being an election judge entails quite a variety of responsibilities. Judges switch postions every once in a while, so they must be familiar with all aspects of the job. They do everything from handing out and confirming ballots, maintaining machines, ushering electioneers out of the building, to giving out the alluring “I Voted” stickers.

Perhaps the biggest reason for implementing election judges is to prevent voter fraud, which is important for local positions, as having one or two votes off may easily tip the election. For every verification station, there needs to be a member from each party affiliation. The same rules apply for delivering the results to the election building.

One thing I observed through attending the class was the type of people in the room. One might expect election judges to be middle-aged or older women. However, the class I attended was surprisingly equal in terms of gender and did include some slightly younger people, although no other high school students were present. In total, there are about 30 high school election judges.

The class itself was rather boring. The bulk of the time was spent on a two-hour PowerPoint presentation and a short break to test out the machines. In reality, they could have sent us home the second we got there and asked us to read the binder of information that essentially was the lecture.

Each of the few dozen precincts has about three to four election judges and a main coordinator. I will be working at the City of Champaign Precinct 19 polling place, located at the Salvation Army office, 502 N. Prospect Ave. For a list of precincts in the area, click here.

A not-so-enticing part of the job is the long workday, from 5 a.m. to any time from 9 p.m. to possibly midnight, depending on whether there are any errors that result in having to hand count every single ballot until the problem is found. You don't even have a break for dinner until everything's done.

Nonetheless, I'll look forward to the experience of beng an election judge, along with getting $90 and a day of school off. If you're eligible, remember to vote on Tuesday!