Some do it for the money, others do it out of obligation and some even do it because it's fun.

They work at the voting polls.

Alice Kountz and her three fellow poll workers at the Grace Lutheran Church on the corner of East Beaver Avenue and South Garner Street greeted voters with a smile Tuesday.

"It's fun," Kountz said.

Working at the polls gives a feeling of involvement in an exciting process, Kountz said.

With a turnout of 69 voters by 11 a.m., the workers at the church were kept fairly busy, said C. Reynold Ammerman, a retired University employee, who served as judge for that district.

"We're very glad to see the students vote," Kountz said, adding that there had been a fair number of students who voted in the morning.

Campus polls were slower but the workers still had the same jobs.

"It gives you a day to completely sit down and study," said Sue Donohue (sophomore-health policy administration), who prepared for a test in between voters.

Donohue, who served as judge at the polls in Waring Commons lounge, said someone from her family has been working at the polls since 1980. But family tradition wasn't her only motive.

"Forty dollars to sit here all day isn't bad," she said.

It's difficult to get full-time students to work at the polls, said Donohue, who goes to school part time. Students are allowed to leave to attend class, she added.

With 13 voting hours to fill, what do workers do during the lulls?

"Voters come in just far enough apart that you can't get much done. But I've been cross-stitching ," said Rita Lux, a poll worker at Redifer Commons.

Lux said she agreed to work because her husband, who is the judge for his district, needed the help.

Donohue, who had a bag and a cooler filled with food, said, "It's a marathon trying to keep awake and keep busy."