Starting the Civic Duty

Kids Voting at Maclay School

Photo by Leah Song/Maclay Andalusian

With Election Day happening on Nov. 5, voters are preparing for a change in leadership. Kids Voting is a program sponsored by the Leon County supervisor of elections that allows underage voters to participate in the voting process. None of the votes count towards the election, but it helps create good voting habits in younger citizens. Maclay School participated in the Kids Voting program, and ballots were spread throughout campus. 

Maclay Key Club helped facilitate the entire process with volunteers working designated areas at all times. For the upper school, homeroom and lunch saw a large influx of students ready to cast their votes. Students went to Langford Hall to vote between candidates. The Kids Voting Ballot allows students to vote for President, US and State Senator, Representative in Congress, Superintendent of Schools, Supreme Court Justice, Board of County Commissioners and City Commissioner. Additionally, students are able to vote on Amendments one and two. The voting ballot includes photos of all candidates to help younger students visualize. Key Club volunteers were also sent to the lower school “precinct,” and middle school students were able to vote in Langford Hall. 

“I think it’s [kids voting] beneficial because even if younger kids don’t necessarily understand the issues, it’s getting them to understand the process and know what it looks like,” Key Club sponsor Caroline Scheer said. “They even make it look like a regular ballot but just modify it to make it more kid friendly.”

At the end of the school day, Scheer and volunteers collected all the ballots from the boxes to be dropped off and counted. The results for overall Leon County included 14,000 participating voters. The votes among the Leon County kids put Kamala Harris as the US President, Debbie Marcusal Powell as the US Senator, Neal Dunn as the Rep. in Congress, Daryl Parks as the State Senator, Rocky Hanna as the Superintendent of Schools, Carolyn Cummings as the County Commissioner and Curtis Richardson as the City Commissioner. Both Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso were voted to be kept on the Supreme Court. The majority voted yes on Amendments one and two. The results specific to Maclay have not yet been released.