Schools across the country are having mock elections. DeKalb School of the Arts, in DeKalb County, Georgia, is no exception. The school newspaper, The Edge, sponsored a mock election for the student body. It was held on October 28 and 29. The arts students, always wanting to put a creative twist on learning, went beyond a paper and pencil mock election. They commissioned the school’s multimedia class to create an electronic voting ballot complete with password protection.
Early this school year The Edge newspaper staff decided to add a survey to compare student-voting patterns to the corresponding voting patterns in the county. The magnet school attracts students from every part of DeKalb County. To accomplish the comparison-voting the voters were asked demographic information, such as the name of their home school. The database sorted the votes accordingly. The analysis of the raw data will be available to the students as an additional learning opportunity after the general election.