Remember to vote!

As a preschooler, quietly coloring my way through coffee-infused League of Women Voters meetings, I was instilled with value for the democratic process. Not voting is the thing most likely to make my mother haunt me after she is gone. Since the time when I stood at eye-level with my mother's skirt while she pulled levers in a velvet-curtained booth on the stage of our neighborhood high school, I have understood that voting is both a right and a responsibility.

So I feel compelled to pass along this message to the young people with whom I spend time.

It helps that our school cafeteria is a polling place. The children are either asked to eat in the classroom or eat silently in the cafeteria, depending on the whim of the week. To help them understand why, we hold an election of our own, right here at "Precinct 28."

We begin with an election the way it might have been held when our country was newly independent. Each child receives a role: "You are Mr. Powell, a wealthy Catholic landowner." "You are Nancy, a slave on a tobacco farm." "You are Jonathan, a footman for the wealthy Crump family." "You are Mrs. Anderson, a widow who owns her own farm." A long line of citizens, not qualified to vote, are turned away from the polls. It makes an impression. (Of note is that elections were not by secret ballot in those days. Voters were often required to announce their choices aloud for the election clerk to record . . . while the wealthy and influential members of the community stood by, watching--and listening.)

Next, we talk about how voter qualifications have evolved during our country's history. To vote today, you must be over 18 and a citizen of the United States. We've come a long way, baby! To illustrate this change, we hop into our time capsule and fast-forward to a 2009 Kids' Favorites election.

Every citizen of Room 28 receives a Voter Registration Certificate and excitedly lines up at the polls.

The children sign in and vote by secret ballot.

After the ballot is proudly placed in the ballot box, each voter receives an "I voted today!" sticker (cleverly procured for the occasion by Mrs. D, Mistress of Procurement!).

Interestingly, one of our second graders suggested literacy as an additional voter qualification. "You also must be able to read." Hmmm. True, one must be able to read in order to be an informed voter. However, . . . I wondered if there was a law about this "on the books." When I went to vote this evening, I asked the Election Judge. I'll leave it to you to do a little digging to find out the answer yourself! Happy voting!

What We're Reading:

Granddaddy's Gift by Margaree King Mitchell

VOTE! by Eileen Christelow

Election Day (Rookie Read-About Holidays) by Patricia Murphy

Duck for President by Doreen Cronin

If I Ran for President by Catherine Stier

So You Want to Be President by Judith St. George