Growing Voters: Elections Manager Gloria Maestas, left, and County Clerk Sharon Stover conduct a Mock Election with third grade students in Nicole Gutierrez’ class at Aspen Elementary School as part of Friday’s National Voter Registration Day celebration. Courtesy photo
ELECTION News:
The Los Alamos County Clerk’s Office was asked to participate in Career Day at teacher Nicole Gutierrez’ third grade class Friday at Aspen Elementary School in celebration of National Voter Registration Day.
Gutierrez said her class has been learning about past and present Presidents and talking about why it is important to vote in preparation of the upcoming election.
“Hands on learning is found to be very successful in school, so I know this opportunity will help our Aspen 3rd grade class become active voters when they turn 18,” she said.
After having discussions with the students on the importance of registering to vote and exercising the right to vote, County Clerk Sharon Stover and Elections Manager Gloria Maestas conducted a Mock Election, using demonstration ballots called ‘ice cream ballots’ and a Dominion ICE voting machine. The students voted their ballots and inserted them into the voting machine. Once everyone had voted, the students anxiously waited, while Stover and Maestas tallied the results. As for the winners? Rainbow Sherbet was the most popular ice cream flavor, Saturday was the winner for the favorite day of the week, along with Google as the search engine, and Winter as their favorite season.
“Our goal is to have everyone vote in every election, and we believe that educating and encouraging our youth to vote by the age of 18 is essential to developing lifetime voting habits that will increase participation in voting,” Stover said.
Students learned the logistics of the voting process and the fact that there are elections every year. They also received “I voted” stickers.
This week, the Los Alamos County Clerk’s Office will continue raising awareness about the upcoming election, holding additional Voter Registration Drives. Residents who are not registered, or have moved, need to complete and submit a new voter registration form to the County Clerk’s Office no later than, 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, in order to vote in the Nov. 8 General Election.
For more information, visit the Clerk’s webpage www.losalamosnm.us/clerk.
