If you voted in person, or plan to Tuesday, you have an election judge to thank for helping make it happen.

They’re responsible for setting up and running the voting equipment, signing in and verifying voters’ information and certifying vote totals. (Unofficial duties also include handing out “I Voted” stickers.)

The Chicago Board of Elections has hired 8,100 election judges to help things go smoothly, spokesman Max Bever said. Many of those judges are students. 

Like many of his peers, Prosser Career Academy senior Tykwon Billups, who lives in Austin, is too young cast a ballot this year.

“I’ll be 18 next March 11 of next year, I do plan to vote,” Billups said. “I believe voting is something we should all do, it’s a very vital thing for our country.”

Even so, he’s very involved in the voting process this election cycle. During the primary, he served as an election judge — a job he plans to perform again Nov. 5. 

He’ll be a small part of history, as officials say students this election are set to make up a record percentage of judges.

“We have over 2,000 high school students that will be serving as election judges in this upcoming election and over 300 college students serving. Together, this is almost one fourth of our total poll worker force,” Bever said.

According to Chicago Public Schools, more than 1,100 CPS students from about 100 high schools served as election judges during the March primary in 569 precincts across the city, and another 257 worked as translators.

The Mikva Challenge, an organization that promotes youth engagement in civics and politics, has partnered with CPS and the elections board to help with election judge recruitment since 2005.

Students can serve as election judges anywhere in Illinois, per state law, including in DuPage, Kane and Will counties.

Bever said in Chicago, the number of student judges has been fairly consistent in recent years, but the share of students is higher because Chicago requires fewer judges than it used to. 

Bever said students are among the first to sign up to serve as poll workers, and that they’re a consistently reliable group.

Illinois law requires election judges to meet certain criteria: They have to be able to speak, read and write English; “skilled in the four fundamental rules of arithmetic,” and be “of good understanding and capable.”

The law also requires judges to be citizens who are qualified to vote, as in, at least age 18.

But a special section of the law creates an exemption for high school juniors and seniors who have additional qualifications, including getting a principal’s and parent’s approval, completing election judge training and having a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.

Cook County Deputy Clerk of Elections Edmund Michalowski says the clerk’s office wants the state to ease that last requirement.

“I’m not sure that I would have always qualified as a 3.0, going through high school, or not,” Michalowski said. “Somehow I got through law school, but I might not have always been at that level. The reality is that we don’t want to discourage people participating in democracies.”

Working an election is a living civics lesson for students.

“This opportunity is in alignment with the District’s desire to support students in connecting to supervised career development experiences and to ignite curiosity and participation in civic life,” a CPS spokesman said in an emailed statement. “The election judge opportunity was promoted to District schools in much the same way that CPS promotes other postsecondary opportunities via teachers notifying students through class discussions and filers posted throughout school campuses.”

Election officials also need the help.

“Like in many groups, in government there’s an aging workforce and to get people engaged at a younger age is important to us,” Michalowski said.

Both Chicago and Cook County election officials said they are covered for the general election, as recruiting tends to be easier when there’s a contest for the White House.  

It’s a different story for municipal elections.

“Every election authority is going to tell you finding enough election judges is usually the No. 1 issue they face heading into every election,” Bever said.

So while it’s too late for students to train to serve as election judges this year, he welcomes their involvement in the future.

“Next year, the suburbs, we’re going to have our most complicated ballot. You’re going to have races for everything – college board, high school board, elementary school, township government,” Michalowski said. “Next year, if students are interested, we will really need their support because like the participation in the election itself by the voters, the appetite to get involved in an election as a judge whether as a student or otherwise often decreases in those elections, which are incredibly important.”

There’s an added benefit to having younger judges: they’re often tech savvy.

“Given that our e-poll books are an iPad, given that our touch screens are very similar, they can help troubleshoot through issues in ways that are very immediate,” Bever said.

They’re accustomed and nimble, Michalowski said.

The city and county also recruit early voting poll workers and election judges at community colleges.

The Cook County Clerk’s office said about 50 students who took civics and cyber security classes at Moraine Valley and Harper community colleges will on Tuesday work for the county as field techs.

And for the first time this election, the clerk’s office is employing 10 students in what Michalowski called the “nerve center,” a central place that election judges can call into with questions or issues that arise.

“Everything we do is wireless, from the students taking the call — the program walks them through all of the potential issues, from equipment to supplies being missing, electioneering — and then a tech is dispatched automatically,” Michalowski said. “These students will be involved for the first time, really at the nerve center for the election, which is cool.”

Election judges and other workers are paid (rates vary based on training, job, duties, hours and election authority, but range from $170 to $500), but Tykwon Billups says that’s not why he does it.

“We have the same power as any other judge. We do the same job,” Billups said. “My last experience, I helped people vote.”

He said he learned that voters have to be at the correct precinct, they can’t just vote at any location – something that was a surprise to some voters, as well.

Billups, who will do track and field in the spring and who heads his school’s Black student union, took carpentry and auto shop because he enjoys learning, and that’s why he signed up to serve as an election judge.

“Contrary to popular belief, us students — we do care,” he said. “We care, we watch, we understand.”

Chicago students have good reason to pay extra attention this year, as city residents for the first time will elect members to the Chicago Board of Education.

Late last month, Billings went to a youth-led school board candidate forum that was organized by Mikva Challenge.

There's no worry that public high school students will miss on learning in the classroom.

Election Day is a state holiday this year, so public schools are closed (though state universities are not included). A measure to make every Election Day a state holiday is stalled in the Illinois General Assembly.

Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]