HS students to work GR polling places

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Clerks across the state are getting ready for election day on Nov. 6. Some polling-place training includes workers who can't vote yet.

"I was kind of bummed out that I'm still going to be too young to vote," said Katie Nethercott, a 16-year-old Grand Rapids Catholic Central High School senior.

She and her classmate, 17-year-old Carolyn Jaglowski, were at a two-hour training Thursday for poll workers.

Grand Rapids City Clerk Lauri Parks traveled to every high school in the city this year, recruiting students to work election day because their computer skills are second nature.

"They have a skill we are really looking for," Parks told 24 Hour News 8.

"We're just going to be doing stuff we pretty much know how to do anyway," Jaglowski said of the computer work.

With redistricting recently changing where some vote, the students will be the first line of defense to making sure you're at the right polling spot. Parks admits high school students are not typical poll workers and calls most of her workers "seasoned."

"Someone who's worked 20 years with me, they are not going to be 20 years old," she said. "They are going to have a few years behind them, and ahead of them, hopefully."

Learning about election law in two hours is at the least challenging. That was evident when a couple students fell asleep during the course of the two-hour training. Most, however, like Jaglowski and Nethercott, paid attention to the bevy of information.

"Yeah. It's overwhelming," Nethercott said. "But I'm excited."

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