[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 76 (Thursday, June 9, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6296-S6297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     MOCK ELECTION BUT REAL RESULTS

  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, as we wind down from a Presidential 
election year and gear up for yet another cycle of congressional 
elections, it seems appropriate to take a moment and consider how 
important an educated electorate is to this country. It is the bedrock 
upon which our Founding Fathers built a fledgling government, creating 
a Constitution that functions with protean efficiency--inextricably 
bound to the necessity of knowledgeable and civic-minded citizens. I am 
proud to make public mention of the Moscow, ID, chapter of the League 
of Women Voters, which has won an award from the League of Women Voters 
of the United States for its efforts to educate future voters in north 
Idaho.
  The League of Women Voters promotes a mock election program through 
its State and local chapters across the Nation. The Moscow chapter 
conducted what can only be described as a phenomenal month-long series 
of events and outreach that culminated in late October in the most 
successful ``mock election'' in Idaho and one of the top in the Nation. 
They were able to register and have almost 2900 first through twelfth-
graders in the Moscow area vote. And I am relieved to add that I was 
reelected by these young people.
  The chapter worked to bring together local, county, and State 
officials, teachers, parents, and volunteers to provide these students 
with a comprehensive and highly educational election experience. The 
students were given issues ballots, information about the candidates, 
Web site curriculum, sample ballots and had to abide by all

[[Page S6297]]

of the State voting laws. Students were taught their voting rights 
under the Help America Vote Act, and the overall efforts were so 
successful that the League of Women Voters of Idaho and the Idaho 
Secretary of State's office asked them to share their mock election 
handbook for instruction and use by other organizations in the State.
  The Moscow chapter went above and beyond in its outreach efforts, 
bringing in students from an alternative high school and made voting 
accessible for handicapped students under Americans For Disabilities 
Act laws. In the successful aftermath, the effect has been felt 
throughout the community as private schools and home-schooling parents 
have expressed interest in becoming involved in the future. Even more 
noteworthy, although parents were not required to participate, more 
parents volunteered than in past years, and it could be surmised that 
this ``mock election'' contributed to the historically high voter 
turnout in that area of Idaho for the real elections in November.
  Thomas Jefferson said: ``If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, 
in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will 
be.'' I congratulate the outstanding efforts of the League of Women 
Voters of Moscow on its remarkable effort to reinforce civic education 
and voter responsibility in Idaho's children.

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