“They came in droves,” Bartosiak said.
It may be the first time a large batch of students from the Glendale Unified School District schools has gone through the training with the county to work on election day, Bartosiak said.
Volunteering as poll workers will give the students — many of whom aren’t yet old enough to vote — a valuable, behind-the-scenes look at the process, Bartosiak said.
Arielle Cubero, a 16-year-old who goes to Glendale High School, won’t be able to vote in the 2008 presidential election, so she jumped at the chance to be involved in the election.
“I like politics,” said Arielle, who has volunteered with the Pasadena Area United Democratic Headquarters.
Staff members from the Los Angeles County Department of Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk came to Glendale High on Wednesday to teach students about their responsibilities as volunteer poll workers.
“We always need people,” said Lorenzo Mendoza, an election assistant with Los Angeles County who led the training on Wednesday. “To have young minds there, to see what the process is like, it’s a good thing,” Mendoza said.
About 25,000 student and community volunteers will help run the polling stations around Los Angeles County on Feb. 5, said Michelle Torres, the outreach coordinator for the county’s poll worker program.
The students will show up at a polling location at 6 a.m. Feb. 5 to help set up. During their 14-hour day, students will perform duties like confirming voters’ addresses, handing out the correct ballots to voters depending on their political affiliation, operating the machine that scans the voters’ ballots for errors and assisting voters if problems arise.
In addition to receiving a peek into the democratic process, student poll workers will receive a stipend of $105 in return for their efforts. The students will also be eligible to work at the polls for the November presidential election.
