“I helped a Somalian woman vote for the first time. It was the most patriotic feeling I’ve ever had.” Suffolk University Student.

Rachael Cobb, professor of Government, directs the college Poll Worker Program at Suffolk University. She specializes in electoral politics.

History

In June 2006, Suffolk University received a grant from the Center for Election Integrity at Cleveland State University to pilot a guidebook on how to successfully recruit college students.

Suffolk University partnered with the City of Boston in the fall 2006 general election to recruit college students to serve as poll workers. The program was a resounding success.

More than 300 students from all over Suffolk University worked as poll workers in schools and libraries throughout the city of Boston on election day 2006, becoming a new generation of poll workers.

Suffolk students went to the polls at 6:00 a.m, hauling ballots, helping to set up voting machines, welcoming voters, translating voter questions, assisting voters with disabilities, and learning first-hand about democracy in action.

Rising sophomore and government major Emilia Losowska said she, “learned many things about the challenges of poll working and the complexities of an election” by working as a poll worker. “I learned that democracy really is messy and really difficult.”