Support the Timberjay by making a donation.

Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Ely is fertile ground for voters and teen poll workers

Posted

The Morse Township hall on South Central Avenue in Ely was buzzing busy with a waiting line 10 folks long for the five full voting booths when I went in to cast my ballot at 10:30 on Tuesday morning. I clocked out as the 210th voter. It looked like we were headed for a patriotic-good day at the polling station.

Across the country, you’d think that not one darned thing had gotten in the way of voters casting their ballots in these Nov. 4 midterm elections. But, let me count the ways. Restrictive laws requiring voter IDs, limiting voting hours and reducing days of early voting have been passed in 22 states since the 2010 elections. This according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

The legislation was promoted and passed by Republicans with the reasoning that it would reduce alleged voter fraud and cut election expenses. With voter fraud nearly nonexistent, Democrats contend the laws are covertly geared to discourage certain people from casting ballots. It’s those who are more likely to vote for liberal candidates, but less likely to have the required photo identification and time to make it to the polls or to stand in line for long periods in order to vote.

“The real reason for the laws is to lower turnout, to hold onto power by keeping those in opposition from exercising their solemn right—to make it hard for minorities, poor folks, and students, among others, to participate in democracy’s most cherished act,” wrote Bill Moyers and Michael Winship in a recent edition of Moyers and Company.

The essay titled, “Don’t Let Them Silence You: Vote Dammit,” notes that “what we really should be doing is making certain that young people are handed their voter registration card the moment they get a driver’s license, graduate from high school, arrive at college or register at Selective Service.”

An initiative with the purpose of inspiring young future voters started this month in Ely. A non-profit called Walking Civics and its director Cole Kleitsch came to town to begin training Ely High School students to become poll workers under existing state laws.

“When we surveyed 18-to-24-year-olds about why they were not participating, or only voting in presidential elections, they said it was because they were intimidated. It was a lack of familiarity with the election process,” Kleitsch said. “The last thing an 18-year-old wants is to walk in and not know what to do next.”

Kleitsch worked with Morse Township and Ely election officials, Ely Memorial High School, local Veterans and the International Wolf Center, where the workshop (including fun and pizza) occurred, to train students as young as 16 and Veterans as poll workers. The curriculum includes components including technical election information as well as discussion of civic character. “Having Veterans attending training demonstrates a powerful model of service to a generation willing to serve, and makes an otherwise process-focused training take on a deeper meaning and memory,” according to Walking Civics on the web.

Communities are training high school students and Veterans around the country, including in Pawtucket, RI; Pinnelas County, Fla.; and three counties in New Jersey.

Ely and cities in the Iron Range historically have very high voter turnout in a state with a consistent record for top voter numbers. Minnesotans rejected a constitutional amendment in November that would have required strict photo ID for future voting. In the 2008 presidential election, 77.8 percent of eligible Minnesota voters came to the polls, earning the number-one ranking of all 50 states, where the national average was 61.7 percent turnout.

That level of political activity made Ely fertile ground for Kleitsch’s Walking Civics effort, which he started 10 years earlier in his home state of New Jersey. His Ely roots also go back to 50 years of family vacationing on Burntside Lake.

“The Iron Range has something going, a level of civic engagement, an independent spirit, so that people get off their posteriors on Election Day,” he said.

Even though young people cannot vote until they are 18, being trained as poll workers gives them the opportunity to learn the workings of the election process and to be sworn in as a poll worker if selected by local election officials. “They learn how to do the job very competently, how to do all of it, and most importantly, to do it with integrity,” Kleitsch said. That higher civic engagement can lead students to become active voters when they are old enough to register, he says.

The Walking Civics program was endorsed last week by the national Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. “We are especially pleased to note the inter-generational nature of this project. The engagement of Veterans, with students as poll workers, is powerfully compelling and a superb educational experience in and of itself,” said Campaign director Ted McConnell.

Kleitsch first announced the endorsement in Ely. “It’s the place that embraced the idea and already knows what turnout means,” he said.