The majority of high school students are under 18 years of age, and this means that they can’t vote in any election. Yet many students have still found a way to help out and be involved by being election clerks.

While many MHS students did work as election clerks they were not placed in the same area.

“A lot of other MHS students were working but they don’t put any of us at the same spots,” senior Allie Grant said.

Election clerks have many different jobs at their polling places, anything from checking a driver’s license to directing people to the voting machines. Each student was able to do different jobs throughout their 14-hour day.  

“My job was to ask people for their driver’s license or photo ID and then I would enter it into a database and make sure their address and name is correct and then I’d motion them towards the people who would take them to the voting machines,” junior Caden Hickel said.

Being a part of this process helps a lot of students learn many different things.

“It’s a good way for me to be involved in our democracy and do my civic duty when I can’t even vote yet,” Hickel said.

Students can take part in the election process and better prepare themselves for when they actually get to vote. In order to do this, it is required that every election clerk participates in three hours of training prior to the election itself. The total hours working as an election clerk over 17 hours. As a reward for all of their hard work students can take service hours or a hundred dollars and a great amount of knowledge in our election process. Doing this helps encourage students to vote when they finally become 18.

“I’ll definitely do it again,” Hickel said. “But by the time it’s the next election, I’ll be able to vote so I’ll be doing that.”