Office of Civic Engagement

CSU Vikings Needed - Several Positions Available for One Night - $15 Per Hour

The Office of Civic Engagement Partners with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to Help Fill a Critical Need for Election Night Ballot Box Openers

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is looking for assistance in unloading vans on their dock, transferring ballot boxes to carts for processing, and opening and organizing ballot boxes on election night November 2, 2021.  

The Office of Civic Engagement is hopeful that CSU Vikings can help the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. They need a minimum of 125 individuals to assist them with this important democratic process! They only have 49 citizens signed up right now!   

This opportunity provides a behind-the-scenes view of the election night processes, as well as supporting and safeguarding our county’s voting rights.   

This is a great civic engagement and fundraising opportunity for fraternity, sororities, and other student organizations. It is also a great opportunity for individual students and members of our CSU community.

Overview of Job Responsibilities for Ballot Box Openers Election Night Position

  • Qualifications for Hiring: Provide a social security number for payroll purposes, be over 18 years of age, and not be a convicted felon.    
  • Date: Tuesday November 2, 2021    
  • Location: 1890 East 40th St. (40th and Perkins) ‐ Board of Elections Warehouse  
  • Time: 7:30 PM for instructions, to approximately midnight.  
  • What to Wear: Comfortable clothing - jeans acceptable. Process area becomes quite warm.   
  • Pay: $15.00 per hour   
  • Hiring Need: 125 people    
  • Parking:  Parking is generally on the street or the lot catty‐corner from our building.    

What to Expect: 

  • As polling locations close, canvas ballot boxes with “voted” and “unvoted” ballots are transferred to pick up sites throughout the county. Once vans are filled with ballot boxes, they are driven down to our warehouse where they are unloaded, checked in, and sent up to the 2nd floor for processing.   
  • Upon arrival to the work floor, ballot box runners receive the canvas bags and take the bags to   tables (one bag per table where one (1) ballot box opener will open, remove all the contents, separate out the ballots from everything else in the bags, and place the ballots in cardboard boxes.   
  • This process continues until all the bags have been processed.    
  • Typically, we don’t receive our first canvas ballot boxes until around 8:30 pm but need the time to educate staff on the procedures prior to receiving them.     

Duties of persons helping the Board of Elections are:  

  • Van Ballot Box Handlers: these duties include removing the ballot boxes from vans to carts and bringing the carts to the ballot box processing area.  
  • Vault Ballot Box Handlers: these are physically strong people that can lift upwards of 50 lb.   boxes throughout the night.  We will have approximately 200 such boxes.   
  • Ballot Box Runners: these individuals will move the ballot boxes from carts to the table, and once the ballot box openers have completed processing the bags, the runners will move the ballot boxes from openers’ tables to the storage vault. These individuals will need to be physically strong, as this process is demanding.   
  • Ballot Box Openers: these individuals will open the canvas ballot box, remove and organize its contents.    

Applying only takes a couple minutes! Click the link below to sign up for this great paid civic opportunity:   

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=cLKyYcos3E2KCj1t8kYn...

Or use this QR Code 

student workers needed for election night