Why Get Involved?
The Excitement of Election Day

Picture This... It is five days before the national election and all of the media are at national election headquarters for the National Student/Parent Mock Election, watching as the results come in from all 50 states and 14 countries/territories around the world where Americans reside. The voices of millions of young Americans are about to be heard.

The students have studied the candidates and their positions, held issue forums and debates, mock press conferences, cable call-in programs, and get-out-the-vote campaigns. They have been preparing for weeks and months for this event. At many of the state election headquarters, governors, senators, congress members and candidates are joining the young voters as they cast their ballots. Tonight is their night.

Which party will win control of the Senate? The House? Will the incumbent or the newcomer be on their way to Washington, D.C.? Who will be the next governor? What issues matter most to other students in their state? In the nation?

Millions of students, and sometimes their parents, are voting in classrooms, schools, community centers, state capitals, even hospital rooms, all across the nation today and reporting their vote totals to their state election headquarters. Each state is tallying its results and sending them in to national election headquarters. The media are flashing the results across the country.

Mock Election Day is the culmination of months of learning the power of participation in our democracy.

"I felt so important as I counted the votes on election night. I'm only 13, but, of course, I WILL register to vote when I'm 18. How could anybody pass up participating in the real thing? Actually contributing to a real election would be great."
- Mary Beth Reynold, eighth-grade student