5 December 2014 • 22:06:11 MST

If too young to vote, too young to be an election judge

At the request of Montana’s Secretary of State, Linda McCulloch, who should know better, Rep. Bryce Bennett (D-Missoula) has introduced HB-18, which would allow 16-year-olds to serve as election judges. From the bill’s WHEREASes, the rationale:

…county clerks and recorders and election administrators face increasing difficulties in recruiting qualified registered electors to serve as election judges;

The clerks and administrators have made this complaint for years, but they always manage to hire enough voting age election judges to get the job done. Therefore, there is no shortage of election judges, let alone a shortage that requires recruiting from a pool of teenagers too young to vote.

Recruiting election judges might be easier if they were paid better. And if the first Monday and Tuesday in November were both election days, a reasonable idea, and if both election days were school holidays, there would be hundreds of teachers available to serve as election judges. And many would.

Teenagers too young to vote belong in school, not the polls. Their brains are still developing, and their judgment is often questionable. Having them serve as election judges is a bad idea.