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WHEELING - A new West Virginia law will allow high school students as young as 16 to work at the polls on Election Day, and Ohio County is planning to take advantage.
House Bill 4865, passed early this year, allows officials to establish the election officials training program and 16 and 17-year-olds to work at the precincts as election officials. Previously the younger high school students could work on Election Day as runners based at the election office, but they could not work at the polls before they were 18 and ineligible to register to vote
"If they are not eligible to vote, there is a form they will have to fill out and will declare their party," explained Erin Allietta, election coordinator for Ohio County. "The same rules will apply to them as apply as to any other employee at the precinct. There can only be one from each party."
Parental permission is needed for the young poll worker, and the student must maintain a 3.0 grade point average to participate. If they attend a non-public school that is not closed on Election Day, they cannot be marked absent from school for being a poll worker under the legislation.
"Linsly for one does have school on Election Day," Allietta explained. "Those students shall not be marked absent if they aren't in school because they are working the election."
Joining the program is an official program, and participants must be approved by the county commission, according to Allietta.
Commissioners this week also passed a motion temporarily relocating voting Precinct 120 in Edgewood to the Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church. Voters in the precinct will be informed of the change by mail.
Allietta plans to use the students in the upcoming election, but as of now there have been enough poll workers secured for the election. She credits recent work with the Republican and Democratic executive committees for recruiting enough poll workers to secure the bare minimum needed for the election.
She indicated it is likely poll workers will again need to be recruited for the 2028 election season.
"I keep telling the executive committees to keep sending me names," Allietta said. "We'll need them for our mailing list for the 2028 cycle.
"The new guys become the veterans, and the veterans train the new guys. It's a revolving door. A lot of them have done it for years and they should be able to step down."
For now, she is happy to have the students available to work at the polls.
"These workers would just serve as an extra person at those precincts (for this election)," Allietta said. "But the more the merrier. It makes Election Day easier for everyone when the work can be spread out a little more.
"I’ll take anybody and put them at a precinct. We do still need help here at the City-County Building for Election Day, and things before and after Election Day."
She noted the older poll workers "love" having the young students come work with them at the polls, and they often ask if they will be getting young help on Election Day.
"It's the energy, and I think they (the students) are a little less put off by the cords and the screens," Allietta said.