News and Articles

When Students Run an Election (SANTA FE COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICE)

Santa Fe – October 3, 2011- Santa Fe County Clerk, Valerie Espinoza, wants citizens to know that the Bureau of Elections has an active voter outreach and education program. For years, the Bureau has provided voting machines and ballots to Santa Fe and Pojoaque schools for their student council and homecoming elections. But recently the Bureau went a bit further in its educational outreach.

On Thursday, September 29, 2011, the students, of Wood Gormley held a school election: grades one through six voted for their student council members: president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. As part of a unit on voting rights around the world, sixth-grade instructor Peggy Johnson decided to make the election as real as possible. She asked the Bureau for help in educating her students about how it runs elections. Not only did students use all the supplies (ballots, voting booths, voting machine, signs, pens, stickers, etc.) that a precinct would use for a gubernatorial or presidential election but also they were trained as election workers. The Bureau provided simplified written instructions for each station in the election process as well as hands-on experience. In addition, students learned about the importance of treating all voters exactly the same.

Early on their election day, with energy levels soaring through the roof, the students took their oaths of office. They transformed the Wood Gormley gym into a polling place: they set up the voting booths at one end of the room and the check-in tables near the door, arranged supplies on the tables, and posted signs both inside and outside the gym.

Promptly at 8:15 a.m., the presiding judge opened the polls. Voters were met by Greeters who reminded them what to do and where to go. As in any election, the young voters identified themselves and signed the white Signature Roster and moved down the table to the next station, where more election workers checked off their names in the yellow Checklist of Registered Voters. Then the voters collected their voting permits and ballots at the last two stations at the table. On to the voting booths. For very young voters, there were Voter Assistants to read off the candidates' names and indicate the appropriate oval to color in once the voter had chosen. At the voting machine, the voters handed over their permits, inserted their ballots into the machine, and collected their "I Voted" stickers.

At the end of the day with excitement still high, the students learned about validating their numbers by comparing the number of signatures to the number of voters on the machine. There was one less signature in the Roster than voters on the machine—not bad when you consider that there were three classes (77 students) of election workers taking different shifts over a five-hour period in which 350 students voted.

So what did the students learn? Elections take hard work and dedication to following stringent rules. For many of the students voting is no longer a mysterious process. And being an election worker can be fun. What did the Bureau of Elections learn? The students were excellent election workers. Their enthusiasm was contagious. To see sixth-graders gently guide first- and second-graders through the voting process was inspiring—the election workers had to balance concern with giving little kids independence. The student workers asked good questions and followed instructions precisely. They were very professional, despite getting the wiggles at the end of their shifts. We'd hire them in an instant if they were at least sixteen—the minimum age for being a poll worker!

Geraldine Salazar
Public Records Request Liaison
Public Information
Santa Fe County Clerk's Office
505-986-6290