On Friday, one of Charlottesville's local middle school's: Buford Middle School held their annual election to determine who would take over as president, vice president, second vice president, and treasurer for the school year. When I was in middle school, I vaguely remember checking some sort of box in my homeroom in order to vote for my desired candidate. At Buford, in the cafeteria there were electronic voting booths set up, and students were required to register to vote. They even received the famous "I voted" sticker, and a free pencil that said "voting rocks".I had the privilege of being at the school Friday during the election. As I tutored in a classroom, and even spoke with a girl who ran for office, it was interesting to hear how the students responded to the realistic voting process.
Despite the fact that registering took "20 seconds" to complete, there were still kids who did not register. Many students proudly displayed their sticker and were already using their pencil! The new voting system reminded me of the Johnson article. I think Johnson may see this as a potential beneficial activity for the younger generation to participate in. By teaching kids the value of registering to vote at a young age, kids may have more incentive to continue voting in national elections when they are of age. It may not solve all the issues Johnson raises, but education can decrease voter ignorance. With a significantly smaller number of voters in the middle school vs. the nation, it was important for the kids to understand the value of their vote. Although the issues raised in Johnson's article remain true on the national level, I thought it was great to see middle school students be introduced to the registration and electronic voting process.
1 comment:
Different from your view, I consider that Johnson will see this middle school exercise as counterproductive to the voter participation at the national level. He might think this would contribute to the diminishing turnout rates based on the idea that American citizens vote too often (they are tired of doing so), thus resulting in a decrease in overall turnouts when these children are eligible to vote. Also, Johnson does not include education as a determinant factor of voter’s ignorance. Rather he defends that voter’s ignorance is a rational choice individuals make due to the high costs of information gathering, which exceed the benefits obtained from voting.
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