Falkville Elementary students hold mock election

For the fourth consecutive election cycle Falkville Elementary School students learned about the American political process by conducting and participating in their own mock presidential election Nov. 5.  

Students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade waited in lines for a turn at the polls. Fifth grade students served as poll workers, checking each student’s voter registration card against electoral rolls, guiding students through the voting area and providing instructions about how to complete and submit their ballots. 

Students are given a ballot by poll workers.

Fifth grade teacher Linda Self has been the driving force behind these student-led elections since their beginning in 2012. Self said she remembers her father, a WWII vet, served as a poll worker each election day while she was child, and instilled in her the importance of the community coming together to exercise the right to vote. Her goal is to teach students about the value of the electoral process and give them an experience to remember. Self said several older students have talked with her about their memories of school elections in past years. 

Gunner Jump and Wyatt Ledbetter check voter registration cards against electoral rolls and provide each voter a ballot.

Landon Fields was a second grader at Falkville Elementary in 2016 and was interviewed by a local television station at that time about his participation in the school election.  

Fields is now a sophomore at Falkville High School, and he recalls his experience and how his understanding of the electoral process has grown since that time.  

“In second grade I had no idea about the Electoral College,” Fields said. “I realize that there is a lot more to the process than I understood back then.” When asked what he would say to voters preparing to cast a ballot in the real election this year, he urged people to do their own research about where the candidates stand on the issues, and not just vote for a candidate because someone tells them to. 

Students stand in line as they wait to cast their ballots.

Helgar Lopez displays his voter registration card.

Self said that participants in the Falkville Elementary 2024 mock presidential election numbered close to 400 students, teachers and staff. At the end of the day, Donald Trump won with 75 percent of the votes.