Elections & Voting                           10 Ways to Involve and Excite Students Through Elections and Voting                         Help start up a student council in which each class helps nominate, campaign, and vote for a governing body. Use the democratic voting process to help make classroom decisions such as which game to play inside on a rainy day. Invite a local politician in to discuss any myths or surprises about the campaigning and election process. Have your class cast ballots and vote during local, state, or national elections. Discuss how the class results compare to the reported results from each race. Participate in Kid’s Voting. Visit one of the many student-friendly websites related to elections and voting in the resources at the end of this document. Tour your local government headquarters to learn more about the services and initiatives currently in place. Visit Raleigh for an inside peak into state government (use the resources provided to prepare for your trip). Have students debate an important issue at your school after watching a segment of a debate from a state or national election year. Role-play a press conference with the governor after using current events to research a “hot” topic with the governor. Select one student to be governor, several to be members of the press, and several to be concerned citizens. Videotape your role-play to share with other classes at your school. Use local and regional newspapers to identify candidates.  Assign candidates for local, state and national offices.  Have students collect photos and stories for display and analysis.  Also, have them look for opinions expressed in editorials, editorial cartoons, letters to the editor and columns.  Based on information they collect, have students write speeches for the candidates to give in their community, produce ads that sell the candidates and write columns in which they choose a candidate and defend their choice.