As students filled the tables in the Walkersville High School cafeteria on Tuesday, Stuart Harvey waited for some to come to his table along a wall.
Harvey is the election director for the Frederick County Board of Elections, and Walkersville was the last of the 10 high schools he visited to sign up first-time voters from among the student body.
The number of students he attracts varies, but the average is about 25, Harvey said. At Linganore High School, he had 100 students register.
The campaign targeted students who will be 18 by the time of the Nov. 6 general election, making them eligible to vote in that contest as well as the April 3 primary.
The countywide effort brought in 312 new voters: 116 Republicans, 101 Democrats, 91 unaffiliated, three for the Green Party and one Libertarian, who registered at Frederick High School.
In 2010, with a similar spring registration drive, the Board of Elections registered 413 students.
With the 2012 election still months away, enthusiasm among the students has ebbed and flowed, Harvey said.
In 2008 — an election that saw a flood of young voters register nationwide — the Board of Elections did most of their registration in the fall, when now President Barack Obama (D) and John McCain (R) had been chosen as the candidates for their respective parties. Harvey found that many students were already registered by that point, but he did sign up a large number to serve as election judges.
Despite this year’s ongoing Republican primary contest, high-school students aren’t as engaged as they likely will be in the fall, Harvey said.
“They’ll be very focused on the presidential election because that’s all they will have heard about,” he said.
Earlene Thornton, a member of the Board of Elections who came to Walkersville to help Harvey, said 2008 would be hard to match.
“[That election] was crazy,” she said.
Walkersville senior Taylor Hudak said she hasn’t been following the primaries but plans to begin paying closer attention as the year goes on.
She said she plans to vote in April’s primary as well as in the general election in November.
Hudak said her sociology class has been talking about some of the issues involved in the election.
Jordan Stambler, a senior, said he’s always been interested in politics, but has only been following the primaries sporadically.
He said he plans to vote in the 2012 election and wants to really start focusing on the various issues and positions the candidates offer.
Now that he’s old enough to vote, it’s time to figure out what everything means, Stambler said.
Along with registering students to vote, Harvey also recruited election judges to help monitor polls on Election Day.
He helped draw students in with a sign offering the chance to earn $125 by working as a judge on election day — a job that includes helping to monitor polling places and ensuring the process operates smoothly.
Maryland allows anyone who is at least 17 by the election and registered to vote to work as a judge on election day, Harvey said.
The county had more than 100 such students working as election judges in 2008, helping to engage youth in the political process, he said.
Tyler Bivona, a senior who won’t be 18 in time to vote in the election, talked with Harvey about the possibility of being a judge.
He said students talk about politics occasionally — whether in class or in passing — but it’s not a frequent topic of conversation.
But, like in the world outside the school, students tend to strongly favor one party or the other.
“Not many people seem to fall in the middle,” Bivona said.
rmarshall@gazette.net
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