A FTER MONTHS OF PREPARA-tion, the pre-election rally hadbegun. The sounds of BruceSpringsteen’s Born In the U.S.A.

blasted into the hall as supporters cheered andwaved their signs. Behind a backdrop of bal-loons and streamers, the candidates—gover-nors, state senators, U.S. representatives, localrepresentatives, and judges—made their finalstump speeches of this campaign to the packedroom and TV viewers at home. Just a fewhours later, the voting would begin and stu-dents at Leland High School would get a jump-start at participating in the democratic process.

This mock election in Leland, Mich., is oneof thousands held each election year at schoolsacross the country. The elections help stu-dents develop an understanding of the polit-

ical process and itsimportance—an un-derstanding manyyoung people don’thave, according to“Citizenship: A Chal-lenge for All Genera-tions,” a 2003 studyfrom RepresentativeDemocracy in Amer-ica: Voices of thePeople. According tothe study, eight of 1015- to 26-year-oldsknow that the ani-mated Simpsons fam-ily lives in Spring-field, yet less than halfknow the politicalparty of their state’sgovernor, and only40 percent can saywhich party controlsCongress. Only 66percent say that vot-ing is a necessary

quality for being a good citizen, comparedwith 83 percent of those over 26 years old.

“The number one goal—and this is im-portant at the local and the national level—is to help kids become informed voters andvote,” says Roy Sovis, Michigan’s mock elec-tion coordinator. “We want to provide stu-dents avenues to become informed. We wantthem to know how you vote, and how itmakes a difference.”

Educators can incorporate mock electionsinto their curricula by participating in one ofthe several nationally organized elections,each of which has a unique focus and set ofresources. One of the largest organized pro-grams is the National Student/Parent MockElection, which has garnered more than 10million votes by students, parents, and teach-ers in the last two presidential election years.In the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections,the vote tally was broadcast live on CNN andC-SPAN the evening of the election.

“I believe that, among all those millions ofparticipants, there is a future president,” saysGloria Kirschner, president of the NationalStudent/Parent Mock Election, which servesas a parent organization for affiliated mockelections held in each state. “Every future pres-ident, senator, congressmen, secretary of state,and judge is sitting in a classroom today.”

Educators can choose how long and in-depth their focus on the mock elections willbe, depending upon their available time andgoals. For two months leading up to votingday, Ed Wodek, Leland High’s governmentteacher, leads a comprehensive project ori-ented around student groups acting as Re-publican and Democratic committees, andculminating in a community-wide rally. AtKuehn-Haven Middle School in Montrose,Mich., Nancy Hall weaves an election projectinto her lessons, in which each fifth-gradestudent acts as a campaigning candidate whoprepares and delivers a speech. And Mark

Oglesby, a social-studies teacher at HowellHigh School in Howell, Mich., prepares forthe election with a variety of projects thatinclude town-hall-style debates and presen-tations. Building every project around andleading up to a vote gives students a reasonto learn about the issues and electoral process.

These Michigan educators offer key strate-gies for making the most of mock elections.

Get Candidates In, Students OutTo add excitement and help students learnabout the issues, many teachers invite candi-dates to in-school discussions prior to the elec-tion. Along with local representatives and citycouncil members, Oglesby has brought in vot-ing officials who talk about the voting process.To prepare for the visits, Wodek’s studentsuse their research and assigned tasks to com-pile a list of questions. At the beginning ofevery class, brief committee meetings determinewhat information they need to better under-stand the issue or candidate.

Students can also have a dialogue withcandidates on interactive TV, if the school hasthe technology, which allows multiple class-rooms to participate simultaneously. ForWodek, this meant that if a politician visitedone school, three schools could participate.Wodek’s students have also engaged in liveconversations with candidates who were inthe state capital, 150 miles away, throughcompressed video. Wodek’s students askedthe candidates questions from their class-room, and, working with a local college andMichigan Government Television (MGTV),a public service of Michigan’s cable televisionindustry, the video was sent out over a cablemodem, compressed, and within a fractionof a second the discussion appeared livethroughout Michigan on MGTV.

Democratic and Republican candidates foreach office also appear at Wodek’s culmi-nating rally, and often stick around so studentshave time to talk with them when the rallywinds down. Convincing campaigning can-didates to visit the school, Wodek says, mayinvolve some guile and patience. One methodis to invite local media to cover the event,which can benefit both the school and thenominee. “The candidates get their faces out,”he says, “and we get coverage.” Another wayto tempt candidates is to threaten to bring intheir rival. “If one comes and other doesn’t,it could look really bad in the news.” Even-tually, Wodek says, it gets to the point wherethe candidates call him to be involved!

Another way for students to learn about theelectoral process, and how community mem-

10 Access Learning FEBRUARY 2004 www.ciconline.org

How mock elections can engage and inform studentsabout the electoral process—and involve the

community in a school activity.

BY M. RAE NELSON

Nancy Hall5th-grade teacher Kuehn-Haven Middle SchoolMontrose CommunitySchool DistrictMontrose, MI

Mark OglesbySocial studies teacherHowell High SchoolHowell, MIoglesbym@howellschools.com

Roy SovisCoordinator for instruction,social studiesGenessee IntermediateSchool DistrictFlint, MIRsovis@geneseeisd.org

Ed WodekGovernment teacherLeland High SchoolLeland, MIewodek@leland.k12.mi.us

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

PollPositions

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FEBRUARY 2004 Access Learning 11www.ciconline.org

bers are involved in it, is tovolunteer in a campaign.“Volunteering gives stu-dents an understanding ofan election, an understand-ing of what candidates areabout,” says Wodek. “Evenif they’re just mailing let-ters, they are still going tolearn something about thecandidate and the the issuesby being there.”

Use Tech ToolsFrom online voting toWebcasts to cable televi-sion, the use of technologycan strengthen a mock-elec-tion project. During thebroadcast of the 2000 MockElection, students fromacross the country dis-cussed national issues via aCNN Webcast. To delveinto political advertising,Wodek’s students producetheir own commercials foreach candidate, using digi-tal pictures and Power-Point. Oglesby shows his students an episodeof C-SPAN’s Road to the White House that ex-amines the commercials released by both par-ties. “We want them to break down this stuffand think critically about what is being givento them,” Oglesby says.

Many of the mock-election organizations’Web sites offer free lesson plans and other re-sources, from information about the branchesof government and political parties to teachingtechniques and links to candidates’ sites, whicheducators can adapt to suit their needs. Halluses these Web-based teacher materials to pre-pare for the lessons. “You have to know yourmaterial before you present it,” says Hall. “Onceyou get into this, students are very inquisitiveand you need to know the answers.”

Many mock elections also offer an onlinevoting component. For the Student/ParentMock Election, state coordinators generally setup their own online voting system, and each stateforwards the results to the national headquar-ters. If a state does not have online ballots, stu-dents and parents can cast their vote throughthe national site. Participants always have theoption to send in their vote the old-fashionedway—or fax or even call it in. But Kirschner be-lieves that online voting is preparing studentsfor the way people will vote in the future. “Thestudents are the pioneers,” she says.

Educators may also be able to connect withtheir local cable stations to help produce mock-election forums and presentations, such asMichigan’s culminating Mock Election Extrav-aganza. Produced by MGTV and Genesee ISDstaff, with support from Comcast and ABC 12in Flint, the Extravaganza was a mix of mock-election results, taped and live interviews withpoliticians, and input by students. MGTV alsohosts interviews with candidates and coversmock-election events—such as Leland’s rally—in the months prior to the elections.

Extend the BoundariesThere are inherent content goals related to theelection process for social-studies and governmentclasses, says Sovis, yet teachers of all subjects canapply some part of the election process. Mathteachers, for example, may end up talking aboutstatistics and polling data; science teachers couldfind a lesson inside a campaign issue, such asdrilling for oil. Oglesby applies many of the elec-toral issues to his U.S. history lessons. Wodekpulled music students into the process when theyperformed at the rally.

Another method of building a richer, longer-lasting learning experience is to include par-ents and community. “Mock elections are aunique tool to get parents involved in politi-cal discussions about election issues,” says

Kirschner, “and teachers can go on from there.It’s much less threatening for parents to par-ticipate in a mock election than to help withadvanced math homework.”

For Hall’s project, parents attended thespeeches made by the fifth-grade candidates.Wodek invited parents and other communitymembers to the pre-election rally. As Wodek’sproject has grown every year, student involvementwith parents and community has also increased.“That’s a fun part of it,” he says. “The kids starttalking about it at home. When most of the par-ents come in, they sure know a lot about theelection and when the kids come back to visit, theytalk about it—they never forget it.” <

Cable Programming

Road to the White House, C-SPAN,Sundays, 6:30pm, 9:30pm ET

Online

Kids Voting USAwww.kidsvotingusa.orgNonpartisan organization; educates and in-volves young people in civic engagement

Michigan Student/Parent Mock Electionwww.virtualpolls.orgInformation, links for statewide mock election

National Student/Parent Mock Electionwww.nationalmockelection.orgInformation, curriculum, and links for na-tional mock election and state coordinators

Teaching Democracy Appreciationwww.ncsl.org/public/trust/democracylesson/contents.htmNational Conference of State Legislatureslesson plan for high-school teachers of civics,government, and U.S. history

We the People: Project Citizenwww.civiced.org/project_citizen.phpPortfolio-based civics project for middlegrades from Center for Civic Education andNational Conference of State Legislatures

The Youth Leadership Initiativewww.youthleadership.netMock election, online legislative simulation,interactive CD for middle and high school

Report

Citizenship: A Challenge for All GenerationsKarl T. Kurtz, Alan Rosenthal, and Cliff Zukin(Trust for Representative Democracy, Na-tional Conference of State Legislatures, 2003)www.representativedemocracy.org

Related ResourcesEd Wodek and students prep forthe Student/Parent Mock Election.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN WILLIAMS

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