Objectives
Discover how an election works by organizing a fictional poll and using their ‘right to vote’.
Description
During this activity, participants will experience a simulated election that they will organize themselves, choosing a real candidate or list. The election materials will be made by the organizer with the help of the participants and using the templates and guides provided in the appendices. If time is tight, teaching staff can take on some or all of the organizational tasks.
Major Skills Aquired
- Carry out a group project
Core Competency Areas
Area 2: methods and tools for learning
Cooperation and creating projects
Area 3: Personal and civic growth
Responsibility, sense of commitment and initiative
Duration
Resources
Website of the Ministry of the Interior to learn about the electoral process.
Required Materials
- Voting booth or independent room
- Ballot box
- Printed or photocopied ballots with candidate names
- Envelopes
- Electoral register to be drawn up
- A polling card for each voter
Suggested Method
BEFORE YOU BEGIN (-) :
Allow 2 hours to 5 hours on the entire activity, depending on how much you want to involve participants in organising the election. In all cases, allow time for:
- Preparing materials
- Setting up the polling station
- The election
- Counting the ballots
- Publishing results once the election is over
STEP 1 (-) :
Set a date for election day taking into consideration school holidays as well as the date of the real elections (it’s more interesting to organise the simulated elections before the real elections are held)
STEP 2 (-) :
BEFORE THE ELECTIONS (allow about 1 hour)
- With participants, come up with a list of tasks to be completed before the elections can take place: What do we need?
- Next, set up an organising committee and allocate tasks within the group. We recommend the following tasks:
- Draw up an electoral register (see Appendix 1: Methodology for the drawing up an electoral register). NB: For ‘Voters in Training’ activities, all participants can vote, regardless of, for example, their nationality. We will not ask for voters to provide formal ID, just their polling card.
- Prepare ballots and envelopes.
- Prepare polling cards (see Appendix 2: polling card template)
- On the day, prepare the room with a ballot box and voting booths.
- Prepare a step-by-step poster for how to vote (using Appendix 3 Voting Step by Step)
- Plan and organize publicity around the election (putting up posters around the school or organization, use the ‘Voters in Training’ Facebook page or website, etc. See activity 4.3)
- Determine who will be in charge of counting the votes. NB: Think about how the vote count will be recorded (see Appendix 4: Counting and results)
- Check task progress before election day.
STEP 3 (-) :
POLLING DAY (allow 1 to 3 hours depending on the number of participants)
- Help the ‘set-up’ team set up the room
- Hold the vote (see Appendix 3: Voting Step by Step)
STEP 4 (-) :
AFTER THE POLL(Allow 1 to 3 hours depending on the involvement you want from participants)
- Count the votes with the ‘counting’ team
- Publish the official results. For example you can ask participants to create communications media to publish the results:
- Make posters
- Write an article for the school or organization newspaper or website
- Potentially could include communicating results to local press if the school or organization agrees
- Publishing a report on the ‘Voters in Training’ website or on their Facebook page
Variants and Extensions
If you wish to hold a run-off election, you can organise both polls on the same day in order to minimise logistical difficulties.
Appendices
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