Story by: Kacie Rioux

Photos by: Alex Landry

St. Peter and Sacred Heart School

Everyone knows that it’s time to choose the new president, or old president. The students at St. Peter and Sacred Heart School did. Every student and adult participated in their own mock election, on Fri., Oct. 15. This mock election was organized by Mrs. Rita Desjardins, the 7th grade teacher. The election was held in the 7th grade room. Everyone had fun, and everyone worked hard to make this election possible.

Voting

The voting was very simple but organized. You would go in the room, get registered, and vote. Once you were done voting you would stick your vote in the ballet box. At the end you would get a pencil if you wanted it. We asked many students what they thought of voting and here are some responses: Katy Lavalliere, a 3rd grader, said she liked voting. Dakota Keene, a 4th grader, said he had fun. Jon Austin, a 7th grader, said it was interesting.

Everyone had their own opinion on voting, some people we asked said it was challenging, some said they didn’t like it, but most said it was fun.

Counting

After all the voting was done, the results had to be tallied. So all the votes went to Mrs. Donna Sawyer, the principal. She asked if she could have two people help her, they were Caitlin Guay, and Dana Davis. We asked these “counters” how they counted the ballots, and they said, that they made piles of the candidates ballots, and then counted the ballots. They counted the ballots more than a few times to make sure they were exact on how many votes each candidate got. Then they got the results. And the results were:

Ralph Nader with 2 votes

John Kerry with 39 votes

George Bush with 98 votes

Congratulations to President George W. Bush for winning St. Peters and Sacred Heart’s mock election!

Positive Feedback

We asked Mrs. Desjardins and Mrs. Sawyer what they thought of the whole election afterwards. These are the questions and their answers on what they thought.

Question: Did you have fun?

Answer: Mrs. Desjardins: “I enjoyed it tremendously. The reason it went so well was because everyone did their job. Whether it was 6th grade making posters, or 8th grade speaking to other classes about the candidates, or 7th grade setting up.”



Answer: Mrs. Sawyer: “I had a great time, it was simulated like a real election so I was excited!”

Question: Was the election hard to plan?

Answer: Mrs. Desjardins: “No because I used the Jr. Scholastic News as a guide. I had everyone in my classes learn about government.”

Question: Did you think that this mock election was close to a real election?

Answer: Mrs, Sawyer: “Yes, the ballets looked real, the registration, just everything!”

Question: What did you think of the voting and the voting turnout?

Answer: Mrs. Sawyer; “I was surprised, I thought the numbers would have been a lot closer then they were. Counting the votes was hard work.”

Question: What did you think of the turnout of the whole election?

Answer: Mrs. Desjardins; “I was excited, everyone was important and knew what to do. And thought it was nice to see adults come to vote in the mock election.”

Answer: Mrs. Sawyer: “I was excited about real political activity taking place in our school.”

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