Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Friday, October 24, 2008

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The homemade voting booth at Northern Elementary held a computer monitor and mouse. Students simply clicked the box beside the photo of the presidential candidate (and running mate) of their choice.

There was no voter apathy to be found this week at Northern Elementary School, where everyone wanted a turn behind the curtain of a cardboard refrigerator box that had been transformed into a voting booth.

“Voting is important because if nobody voted, we wouldn’t have a president,” second-grader Jesse Crouch said matter-of-factly.

More than two dozen schools across the district have signed up to participate in a mock presidential election, in which students electronically vote for their favorite presidential ticket. Results will be tabulated before Election Day.

“They’re excited to hear the results,” said social studies teacher Kevin Payne, who awarded extra credit to students who wrote an essay after watching the final presidential debate on TV.

His fifth-graders were among the last to line up outside the booth at Northern. The 5-foot-tall prop was stationed in a commons area along with an “I VOTED” poster for all the kids to sign.

Laura Checa, the school’s technology coordinator, enlisted help from the art teacher in decorating the box. “I just pasted stars on the booth to make it look festive,” she said. “The kids like it, and they’re also learning.”

As children waited their turn, Checa explained how the voting process worked. Inside the red, white and blue booth, a computer monitor and mouse sat on a small desk. On the screen were the pictures and names of the young voters’ two options: McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden. After they checked the box of their choice, the “VOTE” button lit up. Once they clicked it, the screen confirmed that their vote had been recorded.

“I thought it was fun to pick the one you wanted,” said second-grader Bryson Hobbs, who cast his ballot earlier during the voting window at Northern.

Fourth-graders in Sarah Plummer’s class agreed that participation is key. “You should vote so you can get a good president,” Auryan Padgett noted.

Plummer’s group read the book “So You Want To Be President” last week in preparation for the school’s election. “We talked about the different presidents we’ve had and that they’d have the chance to vote themselves,” she said.

Nami Stager, a second-grade teacher, said her students are also starting to understand that they are members of a larger community. “When we learned about the mock election, we discussed the importance of voting and what it means to have a right to vote,” she said.

“Earlier, many of my students described the candidates as nice or handsome or old. By the end of this process, they were talking more about why it is important to know about each candidate.”

Stager said the hands-on voting experience made her kids feel special, too. “It was exciting for them to make a decision by themselves and to see that their opinion does matter,” she said.

It’s not too late to sign up!

• Schools can still participate in the Online Presidential Election Simulator, which runs through Oct. 31. Go to http://opes.fcps.net for more details (only available within the FCPS network).
• We’ll report the districtwide results Nov. 3 under “Latest news” at www.fcps.net.