There’s been plenty of evidence that college students this election year are finally showing up at the polls. Now college students are being asked to help ensure that all those votes get counted.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a six-year-old federal agency that assists with election preparations, has announced grants totaling $750,000 for 27 colleges and civic groups to help recruit students to serve as poll workers for the November presidential election.

The students are being asked to help avoid situations seen during the last presidential election in 2004, when 5.8 percent of polling places and 4 percent of precincts reported having too few poll workers, the commission said in its statement.

The commission’s efforts brought in more than 5,000 college students to serve as poll workers in the elections of 2004 and 2006, and it hopes to raise that number to 8,800 this year. The poll workers perform tasks such as setting up and taking down equipment at polling places, checking voter registrations, and showing voters how to cast ballots. Workers receive an average of about $100 for a day that can last 14 to 16 hours, including training time, USA Today reported.

Seeking college students make sense both because students represent an available supply of labor, and because it helps encourage younger Americans to participate in elections, the Election Assistance Commission said.

The widespread interest in this year’s presidential election should help with the recruiting, said David C. Valentine, associate director for public service at the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, one of the participating institutions. “We know younger people are more interested this year than they are in any other,” Mr. Valentine told the Missourian, the student-run newspaper.