When Penn students enter their polling station tomorrow, they may see some familiar faces making sure everything runs smoothly.
A number of students will be serving as poll workers and watchers to facilitate the voting process and to ensure that no illegal activities take place. They will be working in both partisan and non-partisan capacities.
Poll workers are nonpartisan, and their duties include signing voters in, checking identification if the person is a first-time voter and helping to set up the voting machines.
Poll watchers are sent by both partisan and nonpartisan groups and make sure that people who aren't allowed to vote don't cast ballots, that no one campaigns within the polling area and that people aren't assisted by others in the voting booth.
College sophomore Pamela Putnam, who will be a poll worker in Houston Hall, said she wanted to physically work at the polls on election day because she wanted to help guarantee that everyone who can vote has an easy time doing so.
"My worst nightmare would be that people couldn't vote," she said.
College sophomore and former 34th Street writer Erik Virbitsky, a poll worker at Harnwell College House, said he decided to be a poll worker after he had heard news stories about voter registrations being cancelled in other states.
"I wanted to make sure people weren't cheated out of voting," he said.
Both Putnam and Virbitsky are enrolled in special sections of Political Science professor John DiIulio's Introduction to American Politics class in which they must participate in election-day activities for credit.
Sixty students are enrolled in the special recitation sections, but not all will work at the polls on election day. Others will participate in get-out-the-vote efforts on campus.
Poll workers participated in a one-hour training session by the Philadelphia City Commissioners of Elections.
The training included learning about how to set up machines, what to do if someone needs to cast a provisional ballot and what to do if a voting machine stops working.
Putnam said she thought the course was somewhat inadequate because a great deal of information was presented in a short amount of time. However, she is not concerned about doing the job.
Poll watchers will ensure that no unfair tactics take place at polling locations, said College Republicans president and College junior Zac Byer. Members of the group will work as poll watchers tomorrow.
"Philly has a history of fraudulent voting, and we don't want that to happen in the election," Byer said.
Penn Leads the Vote is also sending out poll watchers, who will look out for suspicious activities and track the number of students voting.
College sophomore Grant Dubler, who will be a poll watcher in Harrison College House, is excited about participating in the elections process.
"It's a great responsibility," he said.
