Student mock elections
Wed May 14, 2008 at 11:01:58 AM PDT
I don't think our kids get much civic education any more. This fall presents an opportunity to have a presidential election in school that could pattern itself after the one that will be on the ballot.
Did you ever have a presidential election when you were in school?
I got interested in the idea of bringing this up at my son's school, and it turns out there are state and national initiatives with materials available for participating.
The California Secretary of State's office provided materials for conducting mock primary elections at high schools in January. (Barack Obama won with almost 34,000 votes, according to the results.)
Materials to conduct your own primary election are online here through MyVote. However, these are targeted at high school students and were supposed to be given January 28-29 so it is reflective of the primary ballot.
Nationally, there is information at the National Student/Parent Mock Election site. There's a letter there about getting PTAs involved. Millions of students participate nationwide. Mock election day through this organization is October 30.
Do you think it would be fun to participate?
