Students to get ‘real’ ballots for ASB elections

Published 4:16 pm Tuesday, May 5, 2015

This spring high school students in the Renton School District will cast their votes for student government candidates using realistic ballots created by the King County Elections Office.

The pilot project is the brainchild of Rep. Steve Bergquist, 11th-District, in partnership with King County Elections Director Sherril Huff and Damian Pattenaude, area instructional chief with the school district. The idea is to take the mystery out of registering to vote and break down the idea that it’s difficult.

“Especially in the Renton School District, a lot of the kids are the first citizens who get an opportunity to vote in any campaign,” said Bergquist. “Their parents might not even have a ballot.”

Giving students a realistic ballot also gives them an authentic experience he hopes will motivate them to become registered to vote by the time they turn 18.

Bergquist has pushed for similar measures to give 16- and 17-year-olds the opportunity to pre-register to vote. The legislation passed the House, but never made it out of the state Senate.

He got the idea to introduce realist ballots to high schools after visiting the Spokane County Elections Office last June, as the vice chair of the state Government Committee. There he saw how the county elections office worked with the school district to produce ballots for Associated Student Body (ASB) elections and tally the votes. In Renton, the ballots will just resemble official King County ballot stock. They won’t be printed on the very same type of paper. For now, the student government ballots will be counted by hand.

“We were looking for opportunities to engage students in developing lifelong, good voting habits,” said Rene LeBeau.

She is the government relations manager for the King County Elections Office.

“We met Representative Bergquist when he came to tour our facility and met soon after where the idea of a pilot program was formed,” she said.

Elections Director Huff expressed an interested in working with students in the past. Two years ago, when the office began their strategic plan work, officials incorporated the idea as one of their goals, to do voting demonstrations with high school students.

Bergquist was familiar with the ASB elections process as a former social studies teacher at Lindbergh High School. He’s currently on unpaid political leave of absence from his teaching job while he serves in the state House, but still subs in the district.

Bergquist worked two years ago to get a budget measure in place that calls for every high school senior to be given the opportunity to register to vote on January 16. That’s Temperance and Good Citizenship Day in Washington state, a law that was established in 1923. On that day, the superintendent of public instruction is supposed to give out curriculum in observance of particular laws. So Bergquist added voting education for seniors into that curriculum.

He recently gave a talk to Whatcom County students via the internet and instructed them on how to register with their cell phones. He hopes if given the opportunity and exposure, students will become more proactive when it comes to registering.

“Well, I think long term this program coupled with Temperance and Good Citizenship Day will hopefully lead to more student awareness and involvement in our registration process for voting,” Bergquist said. “Hopefully it will lead to more 16- to 17-year-olds pre-registering to vote.”