MADISON, Wis. — Teenagers who aren’t quite old enough to vote yet are able to work the polls on Election Day. Many of them said they are learning a lot in the process.

About 60 students from Madison East High School are working the polls on Election Day.

Arthur Carne and Levi Lauer are two of them.

“I think it’s important that I understand where my vote actually goes and what happens when I go and vote,” Carne said. 

“Having informed opinions is really important,” Lauer said. “So, you know more about how it works, and you have more faith in it.”

Their classmate in Advanced Placement Government, Eva Hecht, signed up to be an election worker last year, too.

“It was really interesting to see how voting works in Wisconsin,” she said. “We have some unique things like same day voter registration. It was interesting to kind of get a deeper understanding of what participating in the democracy is like.”

Terriun Green teaches their AP Government class. He said getting his students engaged and involved in the political process is important and provides real life context to what they’re learning in his class.

“It makes teaching things like AP U.S. Government and regular U. S. Government very easy, very simple, very stratified in terms of being able to weave in real-life examples with the subject matter,” Green said. 

High school students must be at least 16-years-old to work the polls. They go through a formal training session to be able to check voters into the poll book, register voters and issue ballots. Their parent or guardian and high school principal must approve their participation.