Mock Election at Framingham Middle School Gets Students Excited About Presidential Campaign

 

Parents may be heading to the polls on Nov. 4, but students at Fuller Middle School in Framingham have already cast their votes during a mock election complete with voting booths, registration and balloons.

 

 

More than 400 students and staff registered to vote in the election and unless students were absent, everyone who registered participated. Seventh grade social studies teacher, James Bergeron, said some students were a little disappointed to find out that if they didn’t register, they weren’t eligible to vote."It left an impact," he said.

 

 

Between September and Mock Election Day, students participated in election-related activities throughout their classes that prepared them for this day. In addition, each morning announcement began with presidential trivia, thanks to the coordination of 6th grade social studies teacher Allison Benabdallah.

When asked about the importance of this process in the school, 8th grade students Grace (13), Alyssa (13), and Eric (13) agreed that fellow students seemed to take the voting process seriously. Grace said that because of the election lessons and voting/issues discussions in her social studies class with 8th grade teacher, Barbara Fine, she understands more about what the country is facing and she even said it was cool because she could continue the conversation at home with her parents. 



“The process began in September with a whole-school kick-off rally,” said seventh grade social studies teacher, Carol Virdinlia. “The rally brought all of the students together in the auditorium to explain the importance of this historic election and to get them excited about the process.” It had all the fanfare and excitement found at the Democratic and Republican conventions,” she added.


Virdinlia said the goal of the mock election process was to make it as real for the kids as possible, so by the time they are old enough to vote, they understand the importance of living in a democracy and being part of that democratic process. 


The voting at Fuller ended at 1 p.m. and votes were tallied by students. Barack Obama won with 81 percent of the votes.