In Spring 2019, Minnesota Civic Youth (now part of the YMCA Center for Youth Voice), in partnership with Minneapolis Department of Elections and Voter Services and the League of Minnesota Cities, surveyed Minnesota elections officials about their work with student election judges. Read the complete survey report or highlights from five successful programs.
In addition to gathering data on the scope and scale of student election judge programs across the state, the survey asked election officials what resources would be helpful in creating or enhancing their program. The result is the Student Election Judge Toolkit below.
The Student Election Judge Toolkit is an online library of resources designed to help election administrators effectively recruit, train, and deploy high schools students as election judges. This free collection gathers tested resources from across Minnesota. They are organized chronologically by calendar-year activity; election offices are welcome to use a resource “as is” or adapt it to better fit their needs.
If you have trouble accessing any of the documents or are willing to add resources to the Toolkit, please contact Amy Anderson at amy.anderson@ymcamn.org or 651-955-1679. Amy can also help you connect with the high school(s) in your area.
Working with Schools
- Tips for connecting with schools and teachers
- Outreach communication to schools
- Sample teacher liaison agreement – volunteer
- Sample teacher liaison agreement – paid
Setting Timelines
Recruiting Students
- Sample recruitment poster available to adapt
- Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services student flyer
- Minnetonka sample recruitment flyer
- St. Louis Park sample recruitment flyer
- Coon Rapids sample social media recruitment
- Testimonial video from St. Paul students
- Ramsey County Student EJ Rack Card 2018
Required Student Forms Samples
- Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services parent/guardian permission form
- St. Louis Park student election judge packet
- Washington County Elections judge information
Working with Young People
Evaluating Your Program for Improvement
- Sample student survey from Minneapolis
- Sample student survey from Ramsey County
- Sample student survey report from Minneapolis
- Sample school/teacher survey
- Sample teacher liaison survey
Case Studies from 5 Unique Student Election Judge Programs
- Read about five unique student election judge programs in Hibbing, Ely and Morse, Saint Louis Park, Minneapolis, and Blue Earth County.