This year is a county-wide election year and learning the voting process is part of the fifth grade Social Studies curriculum. We wanted to take advantage of that and build on the knowledge of the students by coordinating a hands-on experience for them. Adair County Cooperative Extension Service collaborated with the Adair County School system and the Adair County Clerk, Lisa Greer to hold a mock election for the fifth Graders of Adair County.  Lisa explained the election process and what happens on election day.  

The fifth graders learned how voting takes place and was able to vote on an actual voting machine.   They voted for a candidate in all the county, state, and national elections to take place.  The mock ballot used superheroes and cartoon characters for those running for office.  One hundred and eighty-fifth graders participated in the mock election.  Out of the hundred and eighty, only twelve had ballots that were not accepted by the voting machine due to some error with their ballot.  That was 6 percent of the total fifth-graders voting.  The most common error was not filling in the boxes completely.  

An evaluation conducted at the end of the mock election found that 88 percent had a better understanding of how local elections worked.  100 percent said they planned on registering to vote when they were eligible. This was a valuable lesson for the kids and they seemed interested in learning about voting. It was good to be part of this collaboration of helping the students understand and helping provide them with a hands-on experience.