Though few if any are old enough to vote, that didn’t stop Morro Bay High students from studying the issues and candidates, and holding mock elections, in a class exercise to study a Democratic process that seemed more important this year than most.
Sherill Van Dam, the chairwoman of the school’s social studies department, explained that seniors in the economics and government classes teamed up to study individual ballot propositions, the candidates for State Assembly and President.
“Each group was responsible for creating an information sheet,” Van Dam said, “which they could pass out; a video which we are showing to the student body before the vote; and an interactive booth.”
On Nov. 3 all the hard work came together in the Old Gym, with students at lunchtime free to speak with the student teams, gather information, form opinions and even cast a ballot at old-fashioned voting booths.
“We set this up to be like a political fair,” Van Dam said, “that allowed students and teachers to go and gather information to help them learn about the propositions and the candidates.”
And two actual candidates came out to meet the kids and lend an air of credibility to the exercise.
“We were very fortunate to have the Assembly candidates, Dawn Ortiz-Legg and Jordan Cunningham attend our event,” Van Dam said. “The students talked with them and discussed items that they are concerned about.” Students who seemed very interested in what they had to say surrounded both Cunningham and Ortiz-Legg.
From the short time this reporter wandered through the fair, it was apparent there was a lot of interest in Hillary Clinton’s booth and the booth for Prop. 64, which asked whether marijuana should be legalized for recreational use.
And on Nov. 8, they held an actual election with voting booths set up and run like an actual polling place. “We created a ballot that reflects the items we showcased at our fair,” Van Dam said, “so students get as close to the actual voting scenario as it can be.”
So how did the kids’ voting turn out? They went big for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, 86-62 with a smattering of votes for Gary Johnson (12) Jill Stein (7) and even Bernie Sanders still got three votes.
And they picked Ortiz-Legg over the winner Cunningham, 125-74 in the local State Assembly race.
On the Propositions they approved Propositions 55 (108-Yes, 71-No), 56 (144Y, 52N), 58 (116Y-55N), 62 (99Y-79N), 63 (102Y-74N), 64 (122Y-64N), 65 (99Y-74N) and 67 (114Y-58N).
They defeated Proposition 57 with 72 “Yes” votes and 103 “No” votes.
