Election Day

[Guest]

For those of you who incorporate elections into your high schooler's studies, how do you go about it? I struggle so much just to find out the basics of our overloaded ballot, much less to find out who is funding propositions and what they stand to gain from them... I feel like I have no true understanding of how to approach these with a young teen, but I think it's vital to do so to begin to prepare her as she gets to voting age. I had no idea what I was doing the first time I voted. Ideas much appreciated.

 

I should add that dd has accompanied me to the polls for years, so she knows the mechanics of voting, and she's seen what a ballot looks like, and we comment on the campaigns as people come to the door or put signs up in their yards. But I don't know quite what else to do that won't overwhelm her.

[lllll]

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[Guest]

That is so impressive! I'm like you -- I glaze over, have a hard time doing the work wading through the ballot and then want to just run away. But I like the chart idea very much. Thanks!

[Beth in SW WA]

Our older dc were very involved in this election. We discussed the issues & candidates for months. I take them to rallies. Ds accompanied me to a local political dinner last week and sat next to our next Rep from WA, Jaime Herrera. It was the best civics lesson a kid could receive, imho.

 

Today, ds filled out my ballot with dh. He read every description and we discussed every candidate...again.

 

I signed the ballot but ds got the first-hand experience of filling one out. The blessing of vote-by-mail, I guess.

[Guest TheBugsMom]

He is not in High School yet but he is in 8th.

I had my ds go through the Notgrass Elections curriculum. It is enough to give a basic knowledge of elections. We have mentioned some of the more publicized elections going on today over the last few weeks. Talked about why these are big news and compared them with who is running in our state.

We have talked about some of the things happening with voter fraud and how there could be trouble at some of the polls.

[swimmermom3]

Karen, we sat down and went over the ballot with our dd. It was a basic lesson. We looked up candidates we weren't sure of. We talked about not voting along party lines, but trying to look at issues and candidates. There were bond measures for libraries and public safety. We discussed what things our family considered were of value, but that sometimes there were so many valuable items that we try to work out what the cost increases meant to us. Fortunately, our ballot was fairly simple. This is dd's first election so we aren't mailing our ballots in but going to the library so she can put it in the box personally. Swimmer Dude sat in on our discussion and asked numerous questions. Oddly enough, our oldest son who is determined to serve his country in the armed forces couldn't be bothered with learning about the election process.

 

On a side note, my dd was impressed when a good friend stopped by for coffee yesterday and mentioned that she and her husband had taken their college-age daughter's ballot to Georgia with them this last weekend for a swim meet so their dd could vote.

[Guest]

Our older dc were very involved in this election. We discussed the issues & candidates for months. I take them to rallies. Ds accompanied me to a local political dinner last week and sat next to our next Rep from WA, Jaime Herrera. It was the best civics lesson a kid could receive, imho.

 

 

That is terrific. I had thought of taking dd to a meet-the-candidate party at a neighbor's house, for a school board contender. But I'm not exactly a political conversationalist... what kind of talk went on at the dinner? How much was your ds able to/willing to participate?

 

Lisa, I should have known you would do your usual thorough job. My problem is that dd's eyes glaze over when we start doing the kinds of research and checking-up that I feel bound to do before I vote. And I don't blame her. I don't enjoy it; it's hard to find information; and I always feel I don't really understand enough to vote on many issues like redistricting and judgeships and the like. The California ballot is so huge, so many things get put into propositions, that I feel overwhelmed before I begin, every single year. It is strangely heartening for me that your children respond in different, individual ways (why should I be surprised?) because dd, as usual, has her own quirks that make this issue even tougher for me -- she is terrified of being voting age because she is afraid she will "make a mistake" or a "wrong" decision when she votes. No matter how much we discuss this I haven't been able to make much headway.

[Beth in SW WA]

what kind of talk went on at the dinner? How much was your ds able to/willing to participate?

 

It was a local Republican fund-raising, get-out-the-vote, get fired up dinner 3 weeks before the election. Jaime Herrera was the keynote speaker and we sat at her table. His facebook profile pic is of them sitting together. She was just declared the winner tonight.

 

He soaked in every word and was proud to give the juicy details the next day during US History class (where a big topic is elections).