LHS Getting Into Spirit Of Election

For some Lakewood High seniors, the November 6 election will be the first time the officially cast a vote in an election. On October 30, the rest of the LHS student body got a taste of how democracy works as the school sponsored a schoolwide mock election.

The LHS mock election is part of a greater nationwide mock election sponsored by the nonprofit Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI). The group had over one million students from across the country participate in its first mock election in 2008. At LHS, students voted at two designated polling stations during seventh period for President, Senator and the District 9 Congressional representative.

Prior to the mock election, the school held a mock voter registration drive to sign the students up. To get the kids in the political spirit and build up momentum toward the election, the LHS Social Studies department hosted weekly after school movies during the month of October that focused on political themes such as “Primary Colors” and “Wag the Dog.”

The week prior to the election, students in all Social Studies took an "issues quiz" to help them determine if they are closer to Obama or Romney on some of the key issues in the election.

Ron Lewis, who teaches Government and AP Government classes, is a big fan of mock elections. “They give a students confidence to go out and participate in a real election later in life,” Lewis said. “We wanted to do something schoolwide that would replicate the process and stimulate discussion and interest about the candidates and issues. We are excited to be using YLI because we will be able to compare our results with hundreds of thousands of students across the country.”

Those results will be available November 7 and will include a breakdown of the LHS results.