Milam County Clerk, Barbara Vansa, presented certificates of recognition to five students from Thorndale High School who served as county election workers during the March Primary Election. On hand for the presentation last week were (back row, L-R) THS Coach Bobby Sugg, Sterling Kothmann, Lorenzo Llana and Barbara, (Front, L-R) Shelby Anders and Kevin Cooke. Josh Jones was not present.
When you voted in the primary election in March (you DID vote, didn’t you?), you probably saw some young faces.
Those faces belong to local high school students and we can thank BarbaraVansa, our Democratic county clerk, for recruiting them.
On hand for the presentation at Rockdale High School were (front, L-R) Milam County Clerk Barbara Vansa, Clayton Gibbs, Cierra Pomykal and Rockdale High School Principal Joey Geletka; (Back, L-R), Morgan Laughlin and Melanie Ibarra. Not present were Jacey Jerman and Zavon Gipson.
“These young people worked early voting and election day,” Barbara said. “ They made a real impact.”
She began the program after a meeting of the Milam County Election Board identified problems recruiting qualified election workers. the fact is, your local political parties have trouble staffing the polling locations with qualified election workers.
I learned about the program at one of the election seminars and suggested that she reach out to area high schools to see if there was any interest.And, there was.
Students from Cameron, Rockdale and Thorndale participated in the initial program. Students worked under the direction of the election judge and were paid the same as other election officials. In all, 19 Milam County high school students helped as election workers during the March 4 primary election.
The students from C.H. Yoe High School in Cameron were (front, L-R) Julie Rhoades, Jayci Rhoades, Terre Lara and Kasey Krenek; (Back, L-R) Michael Gelner, Kayla Morgan, Megan Arney and Lance Greene.
Any high school student who is at least 16 years of age on election day and who is enrolled in a public or private high school or home school and has the consent of the principal, or parent/legal guardian in charge of education in home school, may serve as an election clerk.
Barbara said the program was so successful, she would like to continue it for the November General Election and future elections.
If you know a student who might like to participate, please contact the Milam County Clerk’s office at (254) 697-7049 or the Milam County Elections Office at (254) 697-2664.
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