Election Day

The kids are off school today, so Rick and I are taking them with us to the polls to vote. We are very excited to let them be a part of the political process this way, and they can see how grownups participate in an election. As for Violet, she has been learning all about the voting process... she ran for Student Council at her school. In third grade, kids can run for class representative. They have to write and give a speech, and the kids vote for the two students that they want to be their class reps. The kids who win for class rep get to go on to try for one of the Student Council offices... third graders can be either secretary or treasurer. Violet aspired to be treasurer. Here's her speech, written entirely by her:

The class elections were slightly faulty, in my opinion. The kids could only vote for one person and they weren't allowed to vote for themselves (although we later learned that not everyone followed that rule... sigh). The top two made representative. Violet was tied with a boy in her class for the second spot, so they held a second election... in her class there are 13 boys and 8 girls. Guess how the vote turned out? Yep. Violet lost by 5 votes. The good thing was that she learned a lot about elections and has some great ideas for next year. And she's the class alternate, so she does get to participate in student council activities when one of the class reps is absent.
So... if you haven't yet, there's still time. Get out there and vote. And if you have kids, involve them in the process. You will be glad you did!