Recently, two fellow students and I were able to get a first hand experience of the workings of collecting absentee ballots for the general election. The three of us worked at the county city building as “runners” who moved around the counted and uncounted ballots that were being collected. This process took place at the county city building in South Bend on election day.

Never before had I experienced anything like this. Seeing the tens of thousands of ballots that had to be sorted and counted showed me how amazing our democracy is and how important it is to keep it running smoothly. By working during this very historic election, I truly feel as though I have not only gained political knowledge into the workings of an election, but have also been a part of history. Overall this was a very exciting experience and one that I would encourage anyone to participate in if you can.