Surveys cited by the Associated Press suggest that the average age of the nation's poll workers is higher than 70. That troubles Bill Woodruff, not because he thinks fewer seniors should be involved in the political process but because he believes more of his compatriots in engineering, marketing and product development should take a serious look at civic duty.

The issue transcends political affiliation, says Woodruff, vice president of marketing at Aquantia Inc. and a familiar face in the analog-semiconductor community. It also transcends arguments about whether working professionals should take personal time to man the nation's polling places or whether employers should recognize staffers' poll work as worthy of material support. The immediate need is to get more people between the ages of 21 and 65 involved in the political process.

The looming concerns for the coming Election Day range from hanging chads and the reliability of electronic voting machines to verifiable voter lists and poll watcher neutrality. Voters and politicians of all stripes fret about the declines in turnout, particularly for midterm elections like the one in November. An ample and heterogeneous pool of election workers helps safeguard the process and encourages participation.

While Congress has bandied about the notion of a "civic service" corps for years, such programs would target young people fresh out of high school or college. Middle-class, middle-age professionals are becoming more comfortable with the idea of philanthropy as they watch wealthy tech barons step up to fund global programs on a grand scale. But the notion of volunteering one's time remains alien to many.

Woodruff is helping to launch a Web site, initially aimed at Bay Area technology workers and located at www.dayofffordemocracy.com, to encourage midlevel professionals to take time off for poll work and to encourage CEOs and CTOs to promote the idea among their staff.

The campaign specific to the electronics and IT industry will be linked to a broader national effort at www.pollworkersfordemocracy.com, affiliated with Mainstreet Moms. Mainstreet founder Megan Matson recruited VoteTrustUSA and other political action groups to address a projected shortfall of up to half a million poll workers nationwide this year by soliciting a broader array of volunteers from varied backgrounds. Though Matson acknowledged that the deficit will be hard to make up nationwide, she said that the Web site already had attracted "more than 4,000 volunteers, headed for 5,000."

While official sponsorship by companies and high-level executives would be valuable, said Mainstreet spokeswoman Felicity Crush, "what we really want to promote is individual responsibility. Those employees who would be willing to take their own vacation or paid time off for election work would help to inspire others."

Some engineers are old hands at volunteerism, of course, and savvy companies encourage such behavior by making opportunities for community service available through the workplace. But others need a gentle push.

Putting a broader age range of workers in place at voting booths across the country is an excellent first step toward making volunteerism common practice.