Voting Behavior

My absolute favorite class in my undergraduate degree at ECU was called Voting Behavior. The class fell under one of my political science requirements and we spent the semester studying why people vote the way that they do and what influences a person's vote to change. The class mixed a bit of history, a bit of psychology and a lot of data. I was hooked from day one. So much of this class has influenced my natural interest in social studies and politics. The class taught me to look for my own natural biases and to challenge my thoughts and feelings about a candidate that had nothing to do with issues that affect us. Since then, I have never been one to support a candidate simply based on party affiliation.

My work with the Greene County Board of Elections allows me to try to use that unbiased viewpoint to get more people out to vote. That job can be pretty frustrating at times though. Despite our best efforts, turnout for this week's primary was only at 34% of registered voters. And while it may be easy to write that off as people simply not caring enough to vote, that's not always the case. You would be amazed at the phone calls and questions that we get about voting that come from completely false misconceptions. This week, several people asked if they voted in the primary would it keep them from being able to vote in November. And if you hear that once, it's funny, but when you hear it multiple times, it becomes concerning. It's all proof that education matters and that we always need to reinforce civic responsibility at every grade level.

While that issue of voting left me frustrated and confused, another vote made me quite happy. This week's nominations for Teacher of the Year warmed my heart. To keep outside people from voting and to keep people from voting twice, your email address is recorded in Google Docs. (Sorry, it's not a real secret ballot). Only I get to see who nominates whom. Despite past professional disagreements between teachers or the fact that some teachers work all the way across the building from one another, many of you nominated other teachers because you recognize professionalism and dedication to student learning. Your voting behavior in this event restores my faith in the system. Thanks so much for acknowledging the great work that you see in one another. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing who will represent us this year.