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Photo credit: Ben Rutkowski ’09 |
Student Poll Worker Training Program Receives Funding Boost
The Dutchess County Citizen Action Network (DCCAN), a nonpartisan program to train and employ poll workers established by Vassar professor Sarita McCoy Gregory, is one of just 11 programs nationwide to receive a 2009 Help America Vote College Program grant by the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The EAC has awarded DCCAN $20,000 to continue the development of the nonpartisan collaboration among Dutchess County colleges and the county’s Board of Elections.
Vassar professor Sarita McCoy Gregory established DCCAN in the fall of 2008 to train college students as poll workers as a response to reports of an estimated shortage of 500,000 poll workers nationwide and 1,300 in Dutchess County. More than 250 students received training last fall and were able to help alleviate the critical shortage of poll workers in Dutchess County. The collaboration includes students from four local campuses: Bard College, Dutchess County Community College, Marist College, and Vassar College.