Election judging for the spring primary election (March 17, 2025) is open to high school students (you are NOT required to be 18 years old). An election judge is an organizer on polling days at various polling stations.
These are the day and location slots available for the March 17 election:
Every worker, including high school students, receive compensation for their work.
Senior Natalia Schmeiser worked as an election judge last year on November 5, 2024 for the first time.
“I [worked] 12 hours and I earned $220,” said Schmeiser.
“I checked people’s IDs and then I directed them [to another station] if they weren’t registered,” added Schmeiser.
“Checking if all their [information] is up to date” is another task Schmeiser was assigned during her time.
The nature of the work was quite simple and enjoyable according to Schmeiser. “We got to rotate, but I really liked where I was at, I like just checking in people, so I stayed there,” said Schmeiser.
The opportunity was presented to her by Dr. Bierbaum and she took initiative at the time because she was close to the voting age.
“I’m turning 18 soon, and I had never seen a ballot before. [I thought to myself] ‘this might be interesting to see what it’s like and see how the process looks like,’” said Schmeiser.
Her one day of work opened doors for her to represent young people.
“We [Natalia Schmeiser and senior Ayushi Patel] got to talk at a conference with ISU, IWU, and Heartland. And it was [organized by] the League of Women Voters,” noted Schmeiser. “That was really cool”.
She was prepared for the day, but the training is not extensive. There is an online training applicants must complete which takes about 30 minutes.
It can be found here: Election Judge Training Videos | McLean County, IL – Official Website
“[Experienced workers] taught us how to do each of the stations. So they taught us how to do the online portion of it,” explained Schmeiser.
“Then they also taught us how to help people do the paper portion, so we could choose which one we wanted to do,” added Schmeiser.
Schmeiser said she would “1,000 percent” work again and is planning to work in the spring.
Contact Dr. John Bierbaum [email protected] and/or members of the Democracy Project for paper applications or with any questions about being an election judge.
