A voter entered her polling location, passing a set of campaigners with signs. She walked up to a poll worker assigned and presented her voter registration card. The poll worker located her name, marked it and handed her a ballot. She moved to the voting booth, where other workers waited to assist if necessary. There, she carefully selected her choices in each of the races before dropping the ballot through a slit in the ballot box.
Another poll worker handed her an “I Voted Today” sticker before the second-grade girl exited her polling location.
The voters were students at Pass Christian Elementary School. Poll workers and campaigners were fourth-grade students in Julie Sellier’s Mississippi history class. Pass Christian was one of several schools across the state that held mock elections as part of the Secretary of State’s annual Promote the Vote campaign.
“We’ve been doing it for several years,” Sellier, who organized the mock election, told the Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 18. “We actually do it here in Kindergarten through fifth (grades), and then our middle school does it in sixth through eighth. We’re on the same campus, so we all were in the library on the same day having the election.”
Promote the Vote is a comprehensive K-12 voter education program that includes school-organized mock elections and art, essay and poetry contests. The free program is open to all public, private and parochial schools, as well as to home school associations.
“Promote the Vote is a longstanding secretary of state program designed to educate Mississippi students on the voting process and encourage civic participation,” Secretary of State Michael Watson said in a statement on Oct. 16. “Since as far back as 2004, the annual program has consisted of contests for K-12 students formatted around a different theme each year. Through teachers making the effort to implement this program in their curriculum, students are introduced to different perspectives on voting and how it affects their daily lives. Raising the next generation of educated voters is a duty which falls on all of us, and we are appreciative of those educators who make this commitment.”
Students made their choices in the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Mississippi Supreme Court and Mississippi Court of Appeals races using a ballot provided by Promote the Vote. Sellier said they also chose to add the presidential race, although it is not included on the official PTV ballot.
“It teaches them the process of voting, the importance of voting and that their vote counts,” she said. “It’s just an important thing that we need to do in this day and time.”
Sellier’s classes also learned about the importance of poll workers and officials. Students in each of her three classes assumed the role of an election worker during their class time, signing in voters, escorting them to their designated voting booths, guiding students in the proper casting of paper ballots and serving as campaigners.
“Voting today, it felt like everyone was important because usually, it’s supposed to be 18 or higher who can vote but today we all got to say our opinion,” fourth-grader Keiran Barnes told WXXV on Oct 15. “I really enjoyed signing in people.”
Sellier prepared students at Pass Christian through a PowerPoint presentation with information for each of the candidates on the ballot including their photo, background, education and other pertinent facts. She distributed it schoolwide for teacher use. Each student also had to fill out a voter registration card with their name, grade and homeroom teacher.
Sellier, whose father was once an election commissioner in Hancock County, grew up immersed in the election process. She hopes that the mock election gets students in the routine of voting.
“I hope by starting it so young, they’ll realize how important it is to go vote and to have their say,” she said. “If we start it young, they get in the habit of voting, too. Then, hopefully, when they get out of high school when they can register to vote, they’ll say, ‘Oh, I voted all these years. Now I’m going to really get to vote, and my vote really counts.’ I want them to feel how important it is and to know how important it is.”
She also plans to remind her students to tag along with their parents to the polls. Her son, who has always traveled to the polls with her, will vote in his first election this year.
“He’s pretty excited about that,” Sellier said. “So that makes me feel good.”
Pass Christian’s third and fourth graders will also participate in Promote the Vote’s art contest in December.
Read more coverage of this year’s election cycle at our Elections Zone 2024 page.
