Just say “no” to voting, kids.
Sen. Niemeyer has introduced SB 116 which would protect kids from being exposed to civics. Specifically, this would prohibit schools from being used as voting sites during elections. That’s just smart. Everyone knows that voting is a gateway to other kinds of civic participation. First the kids see voting – next thing you know, they’ll be volunteering, exercising their First Amendment rights, paying their taxes and god knows what else. Better to nip this in the bud by keeping polling places away from schools.
The fiscal note indicates that in the 2016 general election, about 10% of polling places were at schools. I know that when West Lafayette had its education tax rate referendum, it was a special election where the referendum was the only issue on the ballot. By using the schools as polling places, the school system was able to keep the costs of the election down. I don’t know what problem the Senator thinks he’s solving here, but if school corporations think they can accommodate polling places and county officials want to put them there, then I don’t see that the General Assembly needs to inject itself into the decision making on this one.
My kids’ elementary school in Indy is a polling place and due to the layout, there is no way to segregate voting adults from the school kids. As a result, election day has been a day off the past couple years. It is kind of disruptive.
I can see that being an issue in some places, but if it were too disruptive, my thought is that it would be up to the school district to decide not to make the building available.
Wait, Doug do you trust the school board or administration to make choices that our state legislators are far more prepared to make?
During the hours that kids are in class and presumably being watched over by a responsible adult and segregated from the voting population, the kids aren’t “exposed” to nasty adults, nor do adults even have any contact with kids. In fact, anyone entering the part of the building where folks vote is patrolled by all sorts of good folks and people are herded in and out of the place. Kids are discouraged from entering the area. It’s all very orderly. I really wish the legislators would stay out of the schools and let the school personnel run them.
I wondered why a recent survey I received has a question regarding Vote Centers. This seems to be the big push in many locations throughout the state. It was even suggested that the fiasco regarding the vote count in Porter County would have been avoided if there were vote centers. So to me it seems SB 116 is just another ploy to establish vote centers that take voting out of places that are within walking distance to those who vote in that area. And yes, voting in schools does cause difficulties, especially to working parents who must arrange for alternative care. However, the importance of fulfilling civic duty certainly seems a positive outcome.
We have vote centers in Tippecanoe County and, in my experience, they don’t make voting locations harder to get to. I don’t think they reduce the number of voting locations overall. The difference is that you can vote from anywhere in the County. So (for example), if a voting location next to your place of work is more convenient than the one closest to your house, you can go ahead and vote at the place closer to work.
I’ve always liked the idea of voting in a church or school. It seems to solidify the value of community.
Doug I am reading this on New Years day and I got my first good laugh of the day!
If we don’t pass this the next thing that will happen is kids will be exposed to Jazz, Classical Music, Mark Twain’s Roughing It and Monty Python.Even worse they might even vote Democrat when they hit their 18th birthday.
We need intelligent thoughtful political discussion, it starts in the schools, not silly legislation that is not thought out at all.