Thomas Hicks, chair of the United States Election Assistance Commission, encouraged students to get registered and vote as he addressed a crowd during the Patience Essah Africana Studies lecture series in RBD library Tuesday afternoon.
Hicks advised all attendees, students and faculty, to serve as a poll worker at some point in their life. Elections are important to Hicks and he said they are a lot more important than many people think.
“One of the added features of the defense that we have are poll workers,” Hicks said. “The bad part of that is that poll workers are basically older folks that have time on their hands — the average age of poll workers is now 73 – 74 years old.”
With technology on the rise, there are new technological advancements in elections that will soon be prevalent throughout the United States. Hicks said with the average age of poll workers being older it could pose a challenge to these advancements in polling technology.
While Hicks said he believes older Americans are capable of operating more technologically advanced polling equipment, he does think younger Americans, including his children, are more capable of using technology. This is a very achievable goal for the EAC, Hicks said.
Hicks took time during his lecture to explain the Elections Assistance Commission and his role within it. As of Saturday, Hicks serves as the chair of the EAC for the second time serving in the role. He has been a commissioner for the EAC since his appointment by former President Barack Obama in 2014.
Hicks said elections are a key component of our country and are important to the United States survival as a nation.
“In January of 2017, Secretary Johnson, who was head of Homeland Security, designated elections as critical infrastructure,” Hicks said. “Elections would be counted the same way as our waterways, our banks, our electrical grid and other aspects, it’s about 16 categories, to say that if these things went down it is going to be an attack on our democracy.”
Hicks has been involved in a number of aspects of elections throughout his different jobs, from working as a member of the Clinton administration to helping create the Help America Vote act as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration.
“In 2000, after the election for Florida, I said to myself ‘I never want to see another election happen this way,’” Hicks said. “I don’t care who won, but there should be no doubt of who the actual winner of the election is.”
Hicks said because elections are so critical to the persistence of the United States, Hicks and others at the EAC work to provide guidelines to state election commissions so every citizen has the ability to exercise their right to vote if they choose.
The EAC has voting instructions for topics ranging from how to register to where to vote available in several languages because just because a citizen does not speak or read English well, does not mean that they should not be able to vote.
Working with elections is not an easy job. From Hicks and his fellow commissioners to state employees that run the election office for a small jurisdiction, there are many things employees accomplish that never make the news, Hicks said.
“One of the most thankless jobs, I believe, is serving as an elected official, and in terms of running the elections,” Hicks said. “No one knows your name unless something is going on with that election. So, the most part of what you want to do is remain anonymous as much as possible.”
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