Middle-schoolers cast their own ballots

MAT-SU -- While a record number of voters turned out for Tuesday's general election, a smaller but no less fervent number of Teeland Middle School students voted, among other things, to re-elect President George Bush in a landslide, keep U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in office and do away with the marijuana initiative by a 3-to-1 margin.

For the third year in a row, Teeland held schoolwide elections, with 206 students -- 33 percent of the student body -- casting mock ballots during their lunch periods.

A handful of volunteer parents was scrambling Tuesday to tally ballots before the school day ended, so students could see immediate results.

Anne Kilkenny, a member of Teeland's parent organization, Partners in Education, has helped organize school-age voting programs for the past nine years, spending the last three at Teeland.

Kilkenny said one of the goals of the program is to get politics out of the classroom and encourage kids to discuss issues and candidates with their parents at home.

Students who registered to vote took home ballots very similar to official ballots, in order to give a real-life feel to the process.

"The student ballots are basically the same as adults' ballots," Kilkenny said. "This is a powerful incentive at the elementary level because kids know they have things they need to learn about the issues."

Kilkenny said parents usually learn a thing or two as well when their kids bring home the mock ballots.

"When I go to the polls there's usually something on the ballot that I didn't know I had to vote on," she said. "When kids bring home correct ballots, parents can see what's on the ballot."

Teachers handed out the voter packets and background materials, but students were encouraged to do independent research at home and discuss candidates and initiatives with their parents before filling out the ballots and bringing them back to school. On Tuesday, they stuffed their votes into a packed ballot box.

While the schoolwide vote was strictly limited to encouraging voter registration and student voting, some teachers independently integrated political current events with social studies, speech and writing.

Some eighth-grade classes expanded on the voting program and hosted various politicians, from different parties, to talk to the kids about the political process. They also engaged in a little persuasive writing and political advertising.

Chad Speer, a seventh-grader at Teeland this year, said he did quite a bit of research before casting his ballot.

"Mostly we are affected by TV campaigns," he said, "but I read a book about the candidates."

When asked about what he was most excited about, Chad was quick to answer.

"I'll probably enjoy the outcome the most," he said.

As the school day wound down, the volunteer parents were quickly counting and logging votes in a scene similar to situations around the country.

"We have to count as fast as we can so we can announce results by the end of the day," Kilkenny said. "That makes kids feel like what they did has merit."

Kilkenny said student results generally mirror, very closely, statewide election results. Also, as in statewide trends, a percentage of students was very excited about the whole process while a substantial number didn't participate at all.

At the end of the day, the final results were announced over the schoolwide intercom system and, if the noise level was any indication of student enthusiasm, there were more than a few impassioned voters.

In the final results, Don Young and Pat Carney won, bear-baiting remained legal and the governor could still make temporary appointments to fill U.S. Senate vacancies.

"When we announced the results you could hear cheers and groans coming from the classrooms," Kilkenny said.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.