Mock Election

It’s been a while since I blogged on here, and for this I apologize. So, I’m going to change that right now. And I’m going to blog about my favorite topic – my students.

This past week, at the school where I work (which is a high school for emotionally disturbed and learning disabled students) we held a mock election. However, we did it properly – we had actual voting booths, sample ballots, and even the “I voted” stickers from the Contra Costa County elections office, and the students had to come during their breaks to cast their ballots (just as in real life, you must go in to vote on your own time).

Two weeks ago, I started teaching them about everything that was on the ballot, to allow them to make more informed choices. I taught them about all six presidential candidates, everyone running for Congress, State Senate, State Assembly, School Board, and City Council. I taught them about all twelve propositions on the state ballot and the two propositions on the local ballot.

The balloting, for the most part, went well (although one kid blew up at the counselor working the polls with me because she wouldn’t let him cut in line (he called her an “asshole,) and one just wrote “Fuck Voting!” on his/her ballot). While teaching about everything on the ballot, they posed very good questions, and demonstrated quite sophisticated reasoning when discussing the merits of the various propositions. The turnout at the polls was solid – about 67% of the students who were present voted.

For results, Obama took 84% of the vote, Propositions 4 and 8 were both soundly defeated (73% and 65% no, respectively,) 2 passed, and 1a was dead even.

I found this all very encouraging. These students, who are some of the most troubled around, are already demonstrating the qualities of good voters. In fact, I would say that they are better voters than many "normal" adults out there.