NATCHEZ — Tuesday, voters flocked to the polls to do their civic duty.

But inside the office of the Circuit Clerk, three young women were busy answering last minute voting questions.

Amelia Conn, 20, Julia Devening, 18, Michaela Pollard, 18, were paid minimum wage to work at the Circuit Clerk’s Office this summer. The job allowed them to see how an election worked, up close and personal.

Conn is the daughter of Virginia Netterville Conn and Garry Conn and has a younger brother, Richard Conn, 17.

The University of Mississippi sophomore pharmacy major began working at the office in 2013, and now works part time during breaks.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to get my foot in the door,” Conn said.

But the election changed things.

“Honestly I didn’t know exactly what I would be coming into this summer,” Conn said.

Conn said she had to train for approximately a month to learn how to use the Sims voting system. Conn also learned about absentee ballots, and helped walk people through the process of filling them out.

Pollard, the daughter of Michael Pollard and Carla Irving, helped take requests for forms.

“I would help them fill out a form and have it sent to their home,” Pollard said.

Pollard has been working part time at the office since last August, although she’ll be ending soon when she goes off to Alcorn State University to major in accounting this fall.

This has been her first election.

“Since working here I’ve seen a lot of hands-on things,” Pollard said, referring to the voting process.

Jacqulyn Williams, deputy in charge of absentee voting, said things were actually slower this year than in the past.

However, there were still 710 requests for absentee voting from the county’s 19 precincts, which meant a lot of work.

Even for those like Devening who didn’t deal with absentee voting, a lot was going on in the office.

“Staying here taught me a lot about the political system,” Devening said.

Devening is the daughter of Liesel and Kenny Devening and has two brothers, Lawson Devening, 21, and Clayton Devening, 13.

She’s attending Copiah-Lincoln Community College in the fall as an undeclared student. Devening originally began working at the office as part of the Summer Youth Work Program, starting on May 18 and ending July 24.

After July 24 she was kept on to assist, working half days.

Devening said people had a lot of questions in the months before the election, and the day of the election was no different.

“People are coming in asking where to vote,” Devening said.

It’s been the same during the past few months, and Pollard said it’s not just walk-ins.

“We get a lot of phone calls and things like that,” Pollard said.

At the end of the day, voters left the polls with the knowledge they had done their civic duty. However, the workers at the Circuit Clerk’s Office left with firsthand knowledge about just what had gone into that duty.