Many students took the opportunity to vote in last week's elections, but a few took an extra step by helping out their fellow voters and earned some cash along the way.
Last week, eight MSU students served as election inspectors, who answer voter's questions during the voting process.
The City of East Lansing paid the inspectors $100 for a whole day, $50 for half a day and $20 for the training they needed for the job.
The inspectors were brought together by MSU's YouVote, which works to motivate more students to vote, as well East Lansing residents.
Jerry Bracy said before becoming one of the inspectors, he really had no idea how much work is put into the voting process.
"I learned a lot on how everything is run," Bracy said. "Prior to this job, I was blind when it came to stuff like this."
Bracy added that he spent most of the day tearing tabs off the voting sheets after people had voted and showing them how to put their sheet into the machine that tallied the votes.
Tyler Orr, a hospitality business freshman, said he enjoyed the experience of working as an inspector, but admitted the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift made the day quite long.
"I really liked being able to be in charge of helping people vote," Orr said. "The thing is, I would never work a whole day again. It was just a really long day."
John Dowell, professor of WRA 135 and charter member of YouVote, said the class usually partners up with a different agency in the Lansing area and chose YouVote this year. Students helped research the election and set up Web pages, Dowell said.
"Once the election came around, YouVote asked for volunteers and most kids were glad to do so, plus it seemed like an easy way to make a few bucks," Dowell said.
He said he was glad to see some of the students get involved because in his mind, there is no greater honor as an American than to vote.
"My feeling is that this is the single best way to demonstrate your citizenship," Dowell said. "Anything under 100 percent participation, especially from students, is quite disappointing."
East Lansing City Clerk Sharon Reid helped gather the inspectors along with YouVote.
She said the city has been doing this for the past three general elections.
"It is so great to have students who can help students with the voting system and all of the technical aspects to voting," Reid said. "They can be very useful on campus especially if there are freshmen who have never voted before and needed assistance."
Reid added that many of the students asked a lot questions prior to working the elections and were able to catch on quickly to the process.
Bracy, who is a member of the WRA class along with Orr, said after spending a day involved in the election, he had a new respect for the voting process. He said he would be glad to do it again in the future.
"When it came to a turnout, I was actually surprised and didn't expect that many students to come out and vote," Bracy said. "People definitely take it more seriously than I thought they had in the past."
