Poll workers will skip class, reap a little cash
Steven Berbeco, who teaches US government at Charlestown High School, made the students in his advanced placement class an offer they could not refuse: Take a day off school and get paid $135. That they'd also be fulfilling a badly needed civic role may have been beside the point, but either way, they took the bait.
Today, for the first time, high school students not yet eligible to vote will work at polling stations across Boston, part of an initiative officials hope will address a severe need for technically savvy poll workers who have language skills and are willing to work cheap. It could also provide students a rare hands-on civics lesson.
"It's a healthy thing for democracy," Berbeco said. "It's certainly healthy for their education."
Saying teenagers often are more adept at dealing with increasingly complicated voting equipment than people from older generations, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts pushed a bill through the Legislature this year that lowers the minimum age of poll workers from 18 to 16. Until now, the average age of poll workers nationwide was 72.
"Are all those people technologically savvy? I don't think so," said Madhu Sridhar, president of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts. "It only makes sense to get these younger people involved."
Governor Mitt Romney signed the bill in September, making Massachusetts one of 30 states allowing 16- and 17-year olds to work at the polls.
In Boston, election officials worked with career counselors at high schools in Charlestown, South Boston, and Dorchester to recruit the younger workers. This year's pilot program taps 15 students, most of whom speak at least two languages fluently.
The high school students, along with about 100 college students recruited from Suffolk University, will work as interpreters and inspectors in wards sprinkled across the city. Each received two hours of training from city election officials last week, including instruction on the city's computerized ballot-counting machines and on how to avoid influencing voters.
"You have to be polite, and you have to smile," said Teresa Lawrence, a student from Berbeco's class who turned 18 last month and will be working today at a polling place in Fields Corner.
Statewide, more than 12,000 workers are needed at more than 2,000 polling stations for every statewide election. Recruiting enough workers has been a continuing problem, especially in urban areas, according to the League of Women Voters. In 2003, Boston was short some 600 poll workers, and faced complaints of voter coercion and not enough interpreters. Election officials at the time said it was difficult to find people willing to work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. for only a small stipend.
High school students, it turns out, have so far jumped at the chance. Eight of the 15 students citywide were recruited at Charlestown High. Four times that number applied, but there weren't enough slots.
"It wasn't that hard at all," said Adele McKeon, a career counselor from the Boston Private Industry Council at Charlestown High.
Some of the students said they could use the community-service experience. Nerlande Mintor, a 16-year-old Hyde Park resident, said she also is looking forward to showing adults she and other teens can be trusted with the electoral process.
"I don't see why we can't be," said Mintor, who speaks Haitian Creole and English. "We're going through a milestone, a transition from being a child to being a young woman."
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 
