Election-Related Program Ideas at the Library
(Compilation from pubyac)
From: “Jill Reigan-Johnson” <jrjohnson@ci.broomfield.co.us>
Subject: Election activities compilation
A huge thanks to
everyone who offered their ideas for election activities! I’m always amazed at the great ideas that
everyone has and their willingness to share!
Hopefully I’ve included all the ideas I received! jill
Jill Johnson
Assistant Children’s Librarian
Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library
Broomfield, CO
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We’re going to have voting booths at all of our branches so that kids can vote for their favorite book characters.
During the last presidential election we had a ballot box where people could vote for their all time favorite book. Maybe two boxes, I think we had one for adult books and another if they wanted to vote for their favorite children’s book. We tabulated votes and announced the winner, but I don’t remember the results.... Maybe Green Eggs and Ham????? You might even offer to pull one (or more votes) at random and award some type of prize(s). You could do early voting, have an official ballot, or allow all write in votes, however you want to do it. Even make a label of some type that voters could wear saying “I voted for a book today”. I believe we purchased some voting posters, stickers etc from Upstart maybe? It’s a pretty simple way of tying into election activities, but not too labor intensive.
Linda Ackerman
Portland, TN.
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The Sept/Oct 1996 issue of CopyCat has some election activities. Last election I had an afterschool program and asked the local election board if I could borrow a voting machine. In Indiana we just connect arrows on a paper ballot. They allowed me to bring the machine to the library, gave me sample ballots and the kids got to vote. They made posters and decorated paper grocery bags reminded people to vote. I returned the bags to the groceries and they used them. I think I read a Berenstain Bears book about elections but it has since been discarded from our library. I got a kick out of the program. I think the kids learned something as well. If you don’t have the past issue of CopyCat I can fax you the information if you are interested.
Alisa Burch
Children’s Librarian
Harrison County Public Library
105 N. Capitol Ave.
Corydon, IN 47112
One year, we purchased the Books Get Our Vote PR materials from Demco or Upstart or Highsmith (sorry...can’t remember which place). We held our own election for the Ohio Buckeye Book Award, an award where kids nominate the books one year and vote winners from these nominations the next year. We then entered these votes into the Buckeye Book Award website so that the kids votes actually counted! Something like this could be done even outside of Ohio by having kids vote for their favorite books from a choice of librarian’s picks. We actually had the books in the display for kids to take time to look at. We had ballots and a ballot box too. It’s not presidential, but we did around election time and asked kids to take time to vote. Kids who voted received an I Voted for Books sticker.
Michelle McMorrow Ramsell
Head of the Children’s Department
Tuscarawas County Public Library
121 Fair Ave NW
New Philadelphia, OH 44663
(330)364-4474 ramselmi@oplin.org
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In 2000 we did a Book Ballot for middle school readers. We worked with the school media specialist to distribute ballots to all middle school homerooms on which we listed a mix of 10 popular & classic books for that age group. There was a box beside each title and kids checked the box (voted) for the book they thought should be named best. We also added an OTHER category for WRITE-IN nominations. We received the completed ballots and tallied the votes from the winner on down. We published the results in the paper and the media specialist announced the winner & runner-ups on the morning announcements at school. We did a big display of the 10 books in-house. Our ballots were printed on red, white or blue paper with lots of stars & stripes graphics from Print Shop. It was low effort, high participation and another opportunity to work with our schools. Good luck! Ann
We used to run a Children’s Choice election every year to coincide with November general elections. It was a write-in election for their favorite author and many of the branches had voting booths and ballot boxes. After 20 years or so and with the growing popularity of the Texas Bluebonnet Award (statewide favorite book of the year for elementary students) our Children’s Choice activities had lost their sparkle. We tried making the election web-based, but that wasn’t particularly popular either. What we do instead is have a monthly interactive poll on our Kids’ Page related to popular culture or other things they may find interesting. This has proved very popular and much easier to maintain.
I think if I were going to do something election oriented this year I would ask high school or college students from various parties’ youth organizations to come and speak briefly at a program to kick off a week long mock presidential election.
Hope this helps,
Stephanie
ZOOM Out the Vote
Email zoom_intoaction@wgbh.org for info.
Thanks,
Peggy Odom
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We are doing a Readers Theater play called “Presidents on Parade.” Very easy, very fun no memorization needed by students. The play is short fun snippets about all of America’s presidents from George Washington to George W. We will be practicing our parts for three weeks and conclude with a Grand Finale for parents and families. Children will also make simple props to go with their president. The evening will end with kids voting in a mock Presidential Election! We purchased a ballot box and accessories from either Demco or Upstart. I know you asked for a library activity not so much a program. I hope some of our ideas help!
Florica Hagendorn
Henderson District Public Libraries
Youth Services
280 S. Green Valley Pkwy
Henderson, NV 89012
702-492-6581
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Starting election night (and continuing until the Monday of Children’s Book Week), anyone of any age can vote for their favorite children’s book and/or author (“Vote for Books”. During CBW, we’ll have a story time (“Listeners’ Choice”) based on those favorites (or as close as we can get). If it’s a chapter book, we may read a chapter or do a book talk. I was initially going to limit it to picture books, but then thought why? Besides, we may get a good “favorite reads” bibliography out of it! And, unlike most elections, we encourage folks to vote more than once....after all, I’m not sure I could narrow it down to one author/book only.....
Beverly K.
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A great book for that kind of program would be “Duck for President” by Doreen Cronin. Very humorous.
Heidi L. Smith
Kaubisch Memorial Public Library
Fostoria, OH 44830
smithhe@oplin. >org <mailto:smithhe@oplin.org
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I am planning such an activity for 4th to 6th graders to be held on October 21st. I called our County Clerk and asked if they ever did such programs. She was very excited and said that they did in fact do a children’s program. We are an official polling place, so all the election equipment is stored here at the library. The County Clerk said that we could use the official equipment and even insert the children’s ballots into the optical scanner. She also mentioned that she was very rarely called for a program, but LOVED to do them! I would love more ideas, however, so if you could email me a compilation of the responses or post them to the list I would very much appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Katie McKeever
Youth Services Librarian
Alpha Park Public Library District
Bartonville, IL 61607
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We are doing an election “program”—kids can vote on their favorite author, favorite picture book, favorite series and favorite non-fiction topic or subject heading. We will start this in early October, and display the results on our bulletin board after Election Day. We just recently got many books on voting in, as well as “Duck for President” by Cronin, which I am planning to use before the election.
Anne Friederichs, Children’s Librarian
Dakota County Library,
Wescott Eagan, MN
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We had a vote for your favorite book character one year in conjunction with something else. It was very simple. We made a ballot with popular book characters and a space for a write in vote. I think we had kids vote for their 3 favorite. Winnie the Pooh was the winner. .
Cathy Chesher, Youth Services Librarian
Adrian Public Library
143 E. Maumee St.
Adrian, MI 49221
517-265-2265 cchesher@monroe.lib.mi.u