Nov. 13, 2024 -- All CH-UH schools held mock elections for students in November, in partnership with
KidsVotingOhio. The purpose of the mock election was to increase students' civic engagement by helping them to understand the election process and the power of their vote.
Fairfax Elementary School’s election was organized by intervention specialist Mindy Hamilton. The lessons started more than a month ago when she shared informational slides with all classes laying out how the electoral process works and presenting basic facts about the presidential candidates.
Her class read children’s books about Kamala Harris and Donald Trump and even listed the ways in which they were similar to each candidate, including enjoying cooking or having a biracial background like Harris and liking sports and McDonald’s for Trump.
Hamilton and her class of 4th and 5th graders wanted the rest of the building to understand the multiple steps that voters need to take to participate in elections so all students had to “register” to vote by a specific deadline.
They also built voting booths and scheduled voting slots for every class to visit their room on Monday, November 4th. Grades 1 through 5 had 10-minute slots while the kindergartners were given 15 minutes since they needed a little more assistance.
Students received “Future Ohio voter” stickers and “Fairfax mock election” pencils, a gift from the PTA, and were able to snap pictures in special photo booths after they cast their ballot.
When the polls closed at 12:30, Ms. Hamilton’s students began the process of vote counting, including having to make tough decisions about what to do with ballots where the winner wasn’t clearly marked or where a student had voted for both candidates.
“This was our version of the hanging chad,” said Ms. Hamilton, who’s been running mock elections in the building since 2004. Ultimately, seven ballots were tossed.
One lucky student was chosen to announce the winner over the PA system late Monday afternoon: “Kamala Harris has won the election. I repeat, Kamala Harris has won the election.”
While the results of the actual election were not aligned with those of Fairfax School, Ms. Hamilton believes that this experience helps students pay closer attention to national politics and is encouraged by the fact that many Fairfax alumni who participated in the building’s mock elections from 2004 through 2016 are now of voting age.
Districtwide mock election results: