Lebanon County’s student election worker program hailed as a top model

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

Lebanon County Commissioners learned Thursday, Dec. 18, that the county’s student poll worker program is a model for other election offices around the commonwealth.

Sean Drasher, director of Lebanon County voter registration/elections, said state officials have looked to Lebanon County for guidance to get school districts throughout Pennsylvania to supply students to work the polls during elections. 

“Our liaison in the Department of State is asking us continuously about how things are going specifically with Lebanon city because it is a model for the state. They are at the higher levels, they’re trying to get this pushed out into all the counties,” Drasher said. “And there’s some mild level of success, but to have one whole district be so completely evolved and just blanket their whole area. That’s it’s one and then not just one election, but in every election, it really sets the bar very high.”

Keith Rolon, an educator in the Lebanon School District, and two students attended the meeting to speak with commissioners about the 2026 municipal election. Rolon told commissioners that Lebanon School District has supplied students to every city precinct for the past one and a half years and had a limited number of poll workers at elections before that.

“The goal of the program is to expose students to our fair and free elections. A majority of the students that we provide are bilingual Spanish speakers, some Arabic speakers, to kind of help provide services to some of our residents that might need some translation services,” he said. “The goal for me to support the program is again to have students exposed to elections so we can have more voters in the community as they become of age and also to support our current residents that might struggle with certain language, I guess, accommodations. And having someone who might speak their language to kind of help them through that process is very important to accommodating our residents.”

Rolon said 33 LSD students were involved in this year’s election. Elections office staff member Jamie Shoemaker noted there were 47 students – including those from Cedar Crest, Our Lady of the Cross, and Lebanon School District – who learned about the election process by working the polls on Election Day.

Rolon said the program was launched by retired teacher Terri Johnston with election bureau administrator Sean Drasher adding that Michael Anderson, his predecessor, and Judy Plummer were the county employees to help get it started. 

“I was teaching civics and she was retiring and she said, ‘Hey, I think this would be good for you.’I just took what she started and sat down with Sean and came up with a game plan to kind of expand it a little bit and make it a little easier on his end where I’m bringing the students to them rather than them reaching out to the students,” Rolon said. “But I think it is important that students are exposed to elections and have that hands-on experience. Even if it’s just handing out stickers or seeing the workings of what happens behind the scenes with the ballots, I think there’s a lot of rhetoric and for a student to witness things with their own eyes, they can make their own informed decision.”

Lebanon High School students Liz Rodriguez and Juliet Perez said they’d both recommend to their peers to become involved in elections as a poll worker to learn how voting works.

“I like the experience because I just talked to a lot of people and I met a lot of people, like, the experience, how they went from how it was before and how it changed to now,” Rodriguez said, noting this was her second year as a poll worker. “I learned how to speak more fluent in my own language and I helped a lot of people and I feel like I really liked it.” 

It was the first election for Perez to serve as a poll worker, she told commissioners.

“It was my first year and I also liked it. I feel like it gave me more of a perspective on what I would do. It is something I would do, as you said. It just made me realize how much easier it really is. When I first heard it, it seemed more hard, way harder than what it was,” she said.

Rolon said he’d be happy to speak with other district officials in Lebanon County about getting their students involved in elections. Drasher noted that 10% of poll workers in the 2025 municipal election in November were high school students and that his department has a goal of increasing that to 20% in 2026.

All three commissioners spoke highly of the program and thanked Rolon, the district, Drasher, and departmental staff for creating a program that’s highly regarded as a model for other districts throughout the commonwealth.

Staff replacement named

During personnel transactions, commissioners voted unanimously to promote Amy Muller from senior deputy district attorney to first assistant district attorney.

Muller replaces Brian Deiderick, who resigned his $115,109.21 yearly position in November after about two and a half years in the role. Deiderick was recognized by commissioners, who issued and approved a proclamation at their Nov. 6 meeting. 

Deiderick had nearly 23 years total service in Lebanon County and had worked previously in the public defender’s office prior to moving across the courtroom aisle to the prosecutor’s office. Deiderick was hired to start employment on Dec. 1 in the office of the district attorney in Cumberland County at a roughly equivalent salary, according to a LebTown records request to Cumberland County.

At the Nov. 6 meeting, LebTown asked Deiderick what comes next in his career. He said then that he was going to “rest, relax, and recoup” while also noting he is 55 years old. 

In a related matter involving the district attorney’s office, commissioners approved the temporary part-time hiring of a law clerk without the bar position within that department, beginning Jan. 5. The clerk will work approximately 20 hours per week effective through the time period that the employee passes the Pennsylvania bar exam, it was announced Thursday.

Human resources director Michelle Edris told LebTown after the meeting that the part-time position was created in lieu of Muller’s vacant senior DA position, adding this was done so there’s no additional impact to the county’s budget. “It will result in a savings as the Law Clerk position is part-time with no benefits,” Edris wrote in an email to LebTown.

Other county business

In other business, commissioners voted unanimously to: 

• Provide a change order for Phase 1A renovations at the county municipal building totaling $4,500 for an increase to expedite water source heat pumps as part of the HVAC construction with Myerstown-based Shannon A. Smith Inc. That increases the existing contract from $196,600 to $201,100.
• Apply for a Juvenile Grant-in-Aid program for fiscal year 2025-26 through Lebanon County Probation Services totaling $193,314. This grant does not require a county match. County officials plan to apply $15,050, or 7.8%, of the funding, if approved, towards operational costs with the other $178,264 designated toward personnel expenses. 
• Renew a one-year lease agreement with Cleona Borough to rent the first floor of county property at 140 W. Walnut St., Cleona. The lease runs Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 and is set at $1,125 per month. The space will be utilized by District Justice John W. Ditzler. 
• Provide several contract amendments for fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26 for Lebanon County Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities/Early Intervention department. For fiscal year 2024-25, there was a contract amendment totaling $12,699. For fiscal year 2025-26, there are seven contract amendments totaling $59,746. There were five amendments for early intervention, and one each for intellectual disabilities and mental health as part of the 2025-26 fiscal year. All contracts are covered by existing funding, meaning they will be paid with no additional costs to county taxpayers.
• Name the following to the Children and Youth Advisory via reappointment while also accepting resignations. The following were reappointed: Janine Mauser, Fredericksburg; Michelle Kauffman, Lebanon; Linda Weindel, Lebanon, Marianne Turnbaugh (formerly Bartley), Lebanon; Valerie Grimes, Lebanon. Their prior appointments are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2025, and the new appointments are for a three-year term through Dec. 31, 2028. Resignation: Judy Huber, Lebanon.
• Appoint Elisa Rodriguez to a five-year term on the board of the Housing Authority of the County of Lebanon. In a separate action, commissioners reappointed Joseph Connor to another five-year term on the board. His current term is set to expire in February. Rodriguez replaces Shila Ulrich, who resigned to take a position with the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.   
• Approval the treasurer’s report, including a beginning balance of $725,202.80, receipts of $2,851,644.92, for a total balance of $3,567,847.72, less expenditures of $3,052,977.43 and less tax claim of $23,930.95, for an ending cash balance of $499,939.34.
• Pass a resolution for the treasurer’s office to set the tax certification fee at $25 per parcel, the electronic file for taxes from the county treasurer’s office at $300, and the electronic file fee from the county’s tax claim bureau at $300 beginning in 2026.
• Grant various personnel transactions. 
• Provide four real estate tax exemptions to fully disabled veterans or family members.  
• Accept the minutes of their Dec. 4 meeting and Dec. 11 executive session.

Commissioners went into executive session after the meeting to discuss union negotiations.

Meeting dates

Lebanon County Commissioners meet the first and third Thursday of the month at 9:30 a.m. in Room 207 of the Lebanon County municipal building, 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon. The next meeting will be on Dec. 24 at 9:30 a.m. to discuss approval of the 2026 county budget.

Since Jan. 1 is a holiday, the first meeting in 2026 is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 8 to conduct county business as well as reorganize officer positions for the coming year.