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News Release
February 3, 2000
High School Students to Vote Online in Mock Election
On February 22, high school students countywide will take part in a unique experience that will most likely be a forerunner of what adults will be doing in the not-too-distant future: voting on-line, via the Internet.
It’s fitting that this event is slated to take place in the leap month of a leap year in the new millennium.
The SAGE election–Student Awareness of Government and Education–has been held on alternate years to coincide with the California primary. It has been coordinated jointly by County Clerk, Recorder, Assessor Ken Pettit, and by County Superintendent of Schools Bill Cirone.
This is the first year that students will vote via computer. The ballot will include candidates for president and senator, plus two of the actual propositions that will appear on the March ballot: Prop 21, which addresses juvenile crime, and Prop. 28, repeal of the tobacco tax.
In some ways, the new project will more closely resemble actual voting procedures than in the past. Volunteers from the League of Women Voters and the PTAs will "register" and sign in all students before they vote. Software experts have insured that the system is secure and accurate, allowing only one vote per student. Each student will be assigned a password that will become inoperative once it is used.
As in the past, the League of Women Voters will also be on hand to register those students old enough to vote in the "real" election. A website prepared by the League has included candidate and issue information so that voters can be well informed before casting ballots.
"The goal of all these efforts is to instill in students an interest in voting and to reinforce that their schools and community see voting as an important civic responsibility," wrote Pettit and Cirone in a joint letter sent to all high school principals in the county.
Further information is available by calling Bob Smith in the elections office at 568-2200.