BLACKSBURG, Va – A big part of the election every year are the poll workers who keep the process running smoothly and quickly.
Rewa Mariger, the assistant commandant of cadets for recruiting at Virginia Tech has been working elections since 2000, after she went to the wrong precinct and was given incorrect information, causing her vote to not be counted.
“When I realized later that that had made my vote not count, that really just energized me to not have that happen to anyone else.” Said Mariger. “It really makes my day when someone comes in and they get to vote and you know they’ll say to me ‘oh I thought there were gonna be huge lines, and we came, and we voted really fast.’”
In her role, she organizes and manages the precincts before, during and after election day.
Virginia Tech has three precincts for voters on campus inside The Squires Student Center. Most of the voters are students, but the precinct does include a few off-campus residents.
In 2020, over 90% of eligible students were registered to vote, and over 72% voted in the 2020 election.
