SKC to try for national voting service grant

Salish Kootenai College officials accepted a challenge last week from Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch to begin a grant writing process that could bring thousands of dollars to the college for student involvement in the administration of elections.

McCulloch was in Pablo on Thursday afternoon to announce SKC president Joe McDonald had agreed to be a part of the campaign. The U.S. Election Office Commission grant is funded through the Help America Vote Act College Poll  Workers Program, which offers public and private colleges and universities and nonprofit organizations up to $75,00 to aid in recruiting and assisting elections officers to train students as election poll workers.

McCulloch said that since the national program begin in 2004, not one dollar has been awarded to Montana institutions.

“This means Montanans are missing the opportunity to fund programs that provide our college students valuable civic engagement opportunities and learning experience,” she said.

The goal of the grant is to encourage students and polling officials to work together to provide nonpartisan basis. Tightening election offices budgets puts restraints on administrators. Student participation could help ease some of this pressure.

Beyond providing manpower, McCulloch and SKC officials agreed that the recruited students would themselves benefit from experiencing the election process first-hand.

The strong sense of an election’s importance to democracy is something McColloch has carried with her from her senior year in high school when she first voted

“This is really a relevant time to do this,” McCulloch said. “If you look at the last election cycle, young people were really engaged. There are more ways to be engaged.”

 Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes chairman assistant and 2008 CSKT Get Out the Vote Coordinator Jason Smith said he saw the interest Indian Country showed in the political process during the 2008 election cycle and is excited about the expanding opportunities McColloch’s vision for the grant could bring to the reservation.

“Voting is important, and I’m glad students will be able to participate as poll workers,” Smith said.

In Montana, poll workers, or election judges, must be trained by election administrators, but the grant money would be used to provide supplemental training and materials to students. Poll workers help officials by answering voters questions and helping provide customer service during elections.

Grant recipients are required to draw up a 2-year budget for the use of the money. Interested parties must submit a notice of interest to the EAC by June 19. The official application deadline is July 16.

McCulloch also visited the University of Montana officials, who also agreed to apply for the grant. She said she hopes other institutions will follow SKCs lead and apply for the grant as well.