Elon University recently served as the North Carolina host site for the National Student/Parent Mock Election, which seeks to raise civic involvement by elementary, middle and high school students and their parents in a full-fledged campaign and national election.
Elon political science faculty and students coordinated the efforts of classes in approximately 70 North Carolina schools which are involved in the election. The mock election was first held in 1980 as part of the NBC Parent Participation TV Workshop. That program used television dramas and current events to improve communication between parents and children. The organization later spun off as its own nonprofit group and continued to grow, reaching 10 million participants during the 1996 and 2000 elections.
This year, the election allows students to vote on congressional seats and national issues. Elon’s role as an election center consisted of publicizing the event to school systems across the state, mostly by way of e-mails, as well as acting as a resource center for people who had questions, problems or comments regarding the election. However, most of the actual voting and tallying was done over the Internet and sent directly to the organization’s national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.
Elon’s involvement was coordinated by Larry Vellani, policy center adviser and instructor of political science and public administration. Vellani became involved with the project through his membership in the Civic Education Consortium, an organization located in the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina that promotes policies and programs to enhance civic involvement among students, educators and their families.
Helping with the student election was one way the political science department hoped to play a part in this year’s election. “It’s just something that our department is supporting as our own form of civic engagement,” Vellani said. “It’s a nonpartisan, nonprofit endeavor to promote the citizenship arts.”
Betty Morgan, assistant professor of political science, said the department’s role in the mock election, as well as its other endeavors this election season, have helped bring broader recognition to the university. “To have this kind of demand for our expertise…is really flattering,” she said.
Though the official voting day for the mock election was Nov. 1, the organization accepted votes through Nov. 5. The results will be posted on the election’s Web site, http://www.nationalmockelection.com.