URBANA — As a high school student looking to play an important role in our local democracy, I was excited to learn of the opportunity to serve as an Election Judge — a program run by the Champaign County Clerk’s Office to ensure that all elections are fair. free and accessible.

“It’s impossible to have an election without election judges,” says County Clerk Aaron Ammons. “It’s a critical part of the election.”

Election judges, or poll workers, oversee voting at polling places on Election Day and during early voting. Their responsibilities include resolving voter concerns and ensuring all votes are conducted safely and fairly.

Election judges must either be citizens of the United States and eligible to vote in the next election or be juniors or seniors in high school. To serve while still in high school, judges must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

Ammons emphasizes the importance of youth participation in this year’s elections.

“I certainly encourage high school students to participate, whether they are able or eligible to vote at this point or not,” Ammons said. “They learn how to help someone vote. They learn the process, the ins and outs of running an election, and all the tasks and responsibilities that come with it.

Diza Baryshnikov, a University of Illinois Laboratory High School student and future election judge, says youth participation is important to understanding different points of view and our government as a whole.

“I think it’s very important for young people to start getting civically engaged at a young age so people can understand what’s going on in government, because government has such an impact on our lives,” says Baryshnikov. “Even during the training… (I) learned a lot about how our government works when it comes to voting, and I get a behind-the-scenes look at what people actually do to collect votes.”

The county clerk’s office has faced challenges organizing the judges’ election schedule, including finding enough judges to serve by party.

As of Wednesday, the election schedule was missing 53 Republican judges, out of an overall total of 350 poll workers, Ammons said.

Bipartisanship is essential. Ammons says that when election judges are dispatched to collect absentee ballots from drop boxes, the county clerk’s office sends a Democratic employee and a Republican employee to “serve as the eyes and ears for each party for anything it deems inappropriate or illegal. »

The ratio of Democratic and Republican poll workers in a respective polling place depends on the partisan turnout of voters in the previous gubernatorial primary election: the more voters of a party, the more judges there will be of this party in a given polling station. .

“It’s…difficult to get judges to serve because people are threatened, followed, harassed, and a lot of people just don’t think it’s worth doing that service if that’s what they want . having to manage,” says Ammons.

Ammons emphasizes the importance of early voting in this year’s general election.

“We have 40 days of early voting here at the Brookens Administrative Center that started on September 26, but we also have early voting locations that opened on October 21 through November 4,” Ammons said.

Baryshnikov adds that his tenure as an election judge helped broaden his worldview.

“I find that a lot more people than me have very different views… so it’s nice to see all the different points of view and perspectives,” she says.

To perform the duties of an electoral judge, you must complete four hours of training, take a quiz and offer availability.

Interested individuals can apply on the Champaign County Clerk’s website.

Simrah Khan is a student at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School.