Graduating JD Evening student Sascha Macias ’25 was all smiles as she began her second day of volunteering at a Valencia, Calif., polling location just after 6 a.m. – and she had not even had her first cup of coffee yet.
“The opportunity to volunteer in this year’s election has been an amazing opportunity to further understand the innerworkings of our state’s election process, and to give back to my community,” she said. “It has been a wonderful experience to welcome first-time voters and support and help long-time voters. Everyone should do this at least once.”
Once again, LMU Loyola Law School (LLS) galvanized student engagement in the general election on Nov. 5. LLS did not hold classes on Election Day 2024 – a tradition it first established in 2018, when it was a pioneer among law schools in creating a class holiday to encourage students to serve as poll workers or volunteer with poll-monitoring nonprofits and hotlines on Election Day. The effort is one component of LMU’s Listen. Engage. Vote. initiative.
Professor and Gerald T. McLaughlin Fellow Justin Levitt, who organizes LLS’ Election Day program, said that this year more than 220 students stepped up, in one of the highest turnouts ever. The students – including undergrads from LMU’s Westchester campus –volunteered to serve at 29 vote centers and several nonprofits across Southern California.
At the vote centers, students handled everything from setting up polling places, checking voters in, making sure that the balloting process proceeded as it should, closing up the polling place at the end of the day, and helping solve issues that arose along the way. Students worked from 6 a.m.-9 p.m. on Election Day; some also volunteered the day before, for an additional lengthy shift.
Beyond voting centers, other students worked with a slate of nonprofit groups in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, both in person and at hotlines. They watched for signs of trouble and carefully documented what they saw while answering voters’ questions. Both groups of students received training ahead of time and were eligible for pro-bono credit for helping eligible voters vote ballots that count.
All of this service is immensely important for law students, Levitt said. Being a poll worker is one of the few ways any citizen can serve as a government official for a day, and it fills a great need in the community, especially for students who can speak multiple languages.
“Service as a poll worker is uniquely well-suited to giving students practice in applying lots of different statutes and regulations to lots of different factual scenarios, repeatedly throughout the day,” Levitt said. “It’s also an enormous benefit to the community to have our students providing the service. And there is simply no better way to see democracy in action.”
Evening student Jorge Villanueva ’25 said being a poll worker during this “charged” election cycle was a great opportunity to get involved in the political process, and he is grateful LLS allows students to take time from their studies to serve the community on Election Day.
“As a fervent believer in our democracy, [I believe] poll workers are integral to upholding the promises of our electoral process,” he said. “I am honored to contribute to this key position.”