As a part of the City of St. Louis Park’s High School Student Election Judge Program, a group of BSM senior government students will be able to experience the November 4th general election first-hand—and get paid for it too.

The opportunity to be a student election judge, offered to all BSM government classes, received an overwhelming response. “We had 43 people sign up and we had spots for only 29 [students]. We had to have a lottery [to pick the students],” said Mr. Keith Jones who is in charge of organizing the program at BSM.

As students election judges, the 29 seniors will have a variety of duties during their eight-hour shift, ranging from greeting voters and distributing ballots, to registering voters and handing out “I Voted” stickers.

Though student election judges get the benefit of missing a day of school and getting paid eight dollars an hour, Mr. Jones hopes that students will gain insight into the importance of participating in government. “Hopefully students will realize how important it is to participate in democracy and how important it is to vote. St. Louis Park has one of the highest voter turnouts in the state, so it will be valuable to them to be part of [the election] and to participate and observe.”