By Eileen Oldfield Staff Writer
HILLSBOROUGH — John McCain or Barack Obama?
While voters have another week before casting their vote, district students picked their presidential pair this week during schools’ mock elections.
Though the results won’t be tallied and released to the schools until Monday, the mock election followed a district-wide concentration on the democratic process, and incorporates both social studies, literacy and math skills, District Social Supervisor Toby Kansagor said.
Though the curriculum varied based on grade level, Ms. Kansagor said the schools concentrate on the election process, and hope to convey the importance of voting.
”Even at the younger levels, the kids are learning that this is an historic election,” Ms. Kansagor said. “I’ve heard of parents being encouraged to vote (by their children).”
The election ballots vary by school level, with younger students only voting for their presidential and vice presidential picks, and older students voting on congressmen and state senate members as well.
To avoid the touchy topics associated with any election, Ms. Kansagor said the concentration was on the voting process rather than pushing a political standpoint.
”We’re not telling anyone how to vote,” Ms. Kansagor said. “We’re telling that it’s a duty to vote: here are the issues, so you are making an intelligent choice.”
Results from the mock elections would be used to compare each classes’ picks to the national results, as well as being used to reinforce math lessons in the younger grades, Ms. Kansagor said.
In addition to the mock elections, several local politicians visited the schools, including State Sen. Kip Bateman, R-Branchburg, visiting Sunnymead Elementary School’s fourth graders Oct. 24, and U.S. House of Representatives candidates Leonard Lance and Linda Stender visiting students at Hillsborough High School.
”Sometimes it may be hard to be a senator,” Destyne Vagliante said after Mr. Bateman’s presentation. “It can be a lot of work and it can be long.”
”I didn’t know windmills helped the environment,” she added, mentioning Sen. Bateman’s comments on wind power and what she learned during a question and answer portion of the presentation.
At Hillsborough Middle School, eighth grade REACH students have a chance to influence their teacher, William Hunt’s, Nov. 4 vote, by researching the candidate’s positions and giving speeches, debates, creating brochures on various interest areas, and creating bulletin boards throughout the school.
”A student questioned me on why it matters if they learn that they do not have a vote,” Mr. Hunt said. “I though about saying the typical ‘teacher’ answer, but then I questioned how I could really motivate the students.”
After earning a vote through quality of their work, each of Mr. Hunt’s six classes will spin a wheel with the 50 states on it, and become the electoral vote for the state the wheel lands on. The classes’ popular votes will be tallied as if they were their randomly selected state, with the candidate with the most electoral votes winning Mr. Hunt’s vote.
”My vote was and still is up in the air,” Mr. Hunt said. “So, in order to give the students the motivation to truly delve through the information, and learn about the democratic process, I put my vote up for grabs . .. My goal is to keep students motivated to learn about the democratic process, secret ballot, the Electoral College, and the responsibility of being informed as voters.”
Despite the differences in activities and complexity, Ms. Kansagor said most district students were more excited this year than previous years.
”This time the excitement’s greater because the election itself has created so much controversy,” Ms. Kansagor said.

