Marble Falls High School now ‘rocking’ the vote

A group of high school students and staff members are trying to spread the word across the campus about voting and the election with a “Rock the Vote” campaign. Teacher Cindy Roberts said this week there has been a voter registration drive on campus.

“We want to try to get as many students who are eligible to vote to register,” she said. “And if there are any teachers who need to register, we’ll try to get them signed up.”

The response has been very positive, educators said.

“I’ve had several (eligible) students come by and register with me,” said government teacher Frances Goodwin. “I had five or six (Thursday) after we made an announcement to come to my room if they’re interested in registering. And we’ll make an announcement (today). After that, I’ll collect all the registration cards and take them to the election office in Burnet.”

Goodwin said many students who are eligible to register and vote in the upcoming election are showing an interest.

Under the law, an individual is eligible to vote is they are a U.S. citizen and are 18 on election day. But before somebody can vote, he or she must first register.

The drive will continue today, though the final official day to register is Monday. Roberts said by cutting off the drive today at the high school gives staff time to transport the forms to the Burnet County Elections Office Monday.

While only a small percentage of the students can vote in November, Roberts said the program has activities and events geared toward the rest of the student body. 

One of the big events is a junior-senior assembly Oct. 16. 

“We’ve asked the students to identify three major issues they feel are of importance in this election,” Roberts said. “During the assembly, a representative from the Democratic Party and Republican Party will present their party’s ideas on those topics.”

The three main issues the students selected are the economy, the Iraq war and higher education.

“Each of the representatives will have five minutes to speak on each of the topics,” Roberts said.

But some students will be allowed to pose questions to the Democratic and Republican representatives.

“From our league of first-time voters, we’re going to allow them to submit questions to be asked,” she said. 

While the juniors and seniors are attending the assembly, a group of humanities students are planning to give issues and voting presentations to the freshmen and sophomores.

“Since the assembly is for juniors and seniors, we wanted something for the other students as well,” Roberts said. “One of our ideas was to give presentations on the history of voting. But some of students thought that was rather boring, so they came up with this idea. It’s been really amazing to watch the students come up with the ideas. They are really stepping up and taking a role in this.”

Roberts said before the freshmen and sophomore presentations are finalized, the administration must approve the idea.

“What we want is the students giving the presentations to really lead the classroom discussions,” she said.

Goodwin said people outside the school might sell students short when it comes to their questions and concerns about major issues.

“I think the kids are getting, and will continue to get, a lot out of this. A lot of the students are asking good questions about the issues and the election process,” she said. “People don’t always give these students a lot of credit when it comes to what’s going on in the world. But unless you discuss it, they’re not going to talk about it. But if you bring it up, they’re interested and they’ll talk about it.”

For more information on registering to vote, go to the Burnet County Web site at www.burnetcountytexas.org and under the “Departments” area click on “Elections” or call (512) 715-5288.

daniel@thepicayune.com