By Brian Ellis
On Tuesday, October 29th, Mr. Brian Ellis’s KBBH High School students participated in the statewide Oregon Student Mock Election for 2024. The unique and innovative program is put on by the League of Women Voters of Oregon (LWVOR). The program is an “exciting, experience-based educational program that involves participating students in the electoral process and demonstrates the importance of voting,” per the organization’s website. (https://www.lwvor.org/mock-election)
The process involves students receiving an abbreviated ballot with just three issues on it, but an exact duplicate of the actual ballots that Oregon voters get for each election, including the same instructions and cautions. This year, the ballot included 1) Measure 118 (creating a 3% tax on corporate sales for companies making over $25 million per year and using that money to pay each Oregonian an estimated $1,600 per year), 2) State Attorney General, and 3) President of the United States.
The process for the KBBH high school classroom was to split up the candidates and Measure for/against for each student to research. They were given a mandate to find and record at least 2-3 ideas each candidate has stated they would like to implement, if elected, or 2-3 reasons for or against Measure 118. Once the students had explored the issues espoused by the candidates, one by one they stood up and presented their candidate’s ideas to the group. As the other young people listened, they made notes so they could decide for themselves who to vote for. After all had shared their information with the group, each student was invited to our makeshift “voting booth” in the hall where they cast their secret ballot just like actual Oregon voters have done over the last couple of weeks. Once all the ballots were submitted to Mr. E or Mr. Tim, the information was passed along to the full state Mock Election board to tally with over 33,000 fellow high school students from around the state. The statewide results will be passed back to the schools sometime after November 1st.
Overall the students LOVED the experience, and gave an enthusiastic “thumbs-up” to doing this again in future elections, noting that the experience had significantly pumped up their enthusiasm for voting themselves when they turn 18.
KUHS Alumni
The new district website has an Alumni page for graduates of KU. This past week, six KU alumni sent us updates on their lives since they graduated. Take a look on the KU Alumni page on the district website. And, if you are an alumni, be sure and send us YOUR update!
