As a young child, poll manager Mark Ivancic used to watch his grandfather dress up in a suit, hat, gold watch and chain every election day to go vote.
As a naturalized immigrant from the Austria-Hungarian empire, his grandfather and his friends would often get a drink after voting and talk about how they got to “tell the government what to do,” a liberty not reserved in Austria-Hungary at the time.
“As a young kid, that just impressed me,” Ivancic said. “That’s what it’s about. It’s people getting to have a right to have a say in the government.”
Inspired by his grandfather, Ivancic has participated in running elections since the 2000s, only skipping the years that he himself ran as a candidate.
Although the election was held in the gym for federal elections, this year, it was in the theater lobby, something done only for smaller, local elections. Ivancic said he doesn’t like hosting the election in the theater lobby for two reasons.
“This type of room doesn’t allow for a good flow. If this was a presidential election, we’d have people all over the place.”
Ivancic said the other problem was that the handicapped parking spots, which are right outside the gym lobby, are way further than they were before, something which also might cause problems.
Hosting the polls while school is running can come with its own problems as well, especially with bells, which Ivancic said can be distracting. Traffic can also be a problem
“School buses come at the end of the day. That’s going to be a problem. Trying to juggle with cars around the buses,” Ivancic said.
Rineeta Vaghchhipawala, junior, worked as a student election judge this year, something she has done two times in the past. Vaghchhipawala said students can get involved as early as 15, and that they can either get paid or earn volunteering hours for helping out.
Vaghchhipawala said the polls shifting locations to the theater lobby might have caused some to get confused, especially because other community events like the blood drive and previous polls were located there.
As a student, Vaghchhipawala utilizes her lunch break to catch up with teachers because the polls run the entire school day, something which is convenient for her because the polls are located in the school.
“I wish it was a holiday today so I didn’t have to miss school, but this is still pretty convenient because I can just go talk to my teachers,” Vaghchhipawala said. “Sometimes I see my friends as well, and I’ve seen seniors I know come in to vote so that’s really nice.”
Vaghchhipawala guides people through the voting process, scans IDs, checks in voters on tablets, prints out ballots and helps cast ballots.
“It’s a lot of fun. A lot of people like seeing young people help the election, and they’re like ‘oh my gosh, is the first time I’ve seen a young election judge’,” Vaghchhipawala said. “They really like to see people getting involved. I love getting involved, this is a lot of fun for me.”
Senior Principal Kyle Devine is manager of the election site and oversees the process of MHS being a polling location.
Rockwood schools continue to function, despite the election day because it is not a federal election, he said.
“If it’s a presidential election, they meet in the gym and shut the building down for security reasons,“ Devine said. “For elections like [Prop S], we just give them the theater lobby with enough space.“
Devine said one of the reasons MHS is chosen as an election site is because of its central location and the fact that the school has a bigger campus with access to the public.
“For elections like this one we have a couple things going on in the theater so it disrupts the flow pattern of how we get kids through the theater.“
Devine also said that although polling creates some obstacles for students, it doesn’t affect the voters as much because the theater provides enough privacy without many disruptions.
