Nov. 17, 2021 -- Primary and secondary school students across the country are used to participating in mock elections for president every four years. But rarely are children exposed to the idea of voting in “off-year,” local elections. Which is too bad because, as they say, all politics is local.
This fall, the CH-UH District, in conjunction with
Kids Voting Ohio, engaged all of its students in a mock election for the most recent Congressional, city and school board races. The youngest students in kindergarten through second grade had a modified opportunity to vote in class. As students got older, their participation became more in depth, with high schoolers researching candidates and using a unique Voter ID to vote in the school library, which the librarians had prepared to mimic a polling location.
Similar to early voting, students could choose from five separate school days to cast their ballots. And because we all know you haven’t actually voted until you receive your sticker, they even received a “Future Ohio Voter” sticker when they finished.
A special Google Classroom was set up for students and teachers to have access to lessons and videos on the importance of voting, plus links to candidates’ websites, forums and The Heights Observer’s voter guide. Created by by TeKara Ray-Carnegie, the district’s Instructional Specialist for Social Studies, the Classroom included daily results, final results, and tools to compare and analyze student votes versus actual votes.
Results were similar but not identical to the actual results in these races. For U.S. representative, CH-UH students chose Shontel Brown at 81.05% to 18.95% versus 80.3% to 19.7% among adult voters. For Cleveland Heights mayor, Kahlil Seren won 56.25% to 43.75% versus 60.5% to 39.5%. The University Heights mayor’s race went to Michael D. Brennan with 40% of the vote versus 48.5%.
In the crowded city council and school board races, results were more varied. There was a much more even distribution of votes for four seats on Cleveland Heights City Council, though Josie Moore won the single unexpired seat handily in both the youth and the adult vote. .
Ms. Ray-Carnegie hopes the project served to “increase students’ understanding of the election process and the power of the vote at the local level.”
