Civil and voter education comes alive
with mock parliaments, elections, political debating and so forth. In many
countries, EMBs, schools and other providers of CVE run mock elections for
various age groups which are integrated within the regular curriculum, or organized
in the lead-up to an electoral event. Mock elections allow young and first-time
voters to explore the practical workings of electoral procedures. Mock
elections can be held purely as a teaching or practice exercise, but they can
also be a tool to help non-voters have a voice if held alongside the real
election. Mock elections are also a “safe” place for youth with disabilities or
young women, who would otherwise not have access to electoral processes, to
learn about voting.
Example: Kids Voting USA is a non-partisan,
grassroots-driven voter education program committed to creating lifelong voting
habits in children, increasing family communication about citizenship and
encouraging greater adult voter turnout. Kids Voting USA started in 1988 and by
mid-2018 over 1 million young people had participated in the program throughout
the US. Kids Voting is a similar program in Canada. Mock elections take place
at polling places on Election Day, and results can be reported along with the
official results of the actual election.
Example: The EMB in Mexico (Institute Nacional
Electoral – INE) has done several elections for children and youth for over a
decade.[i]
Example: In Jordan, at the local level, mock
elections in Madaba provided an opportunity to 23 young men and women, aged
18–24, to simulate the first local elections to be held under the 2015
Decentralization Law and Municipality Law, which took place in 2017. The young
participants shared good practices to support the candidates in campaigning and
discussed the implications of the decentralization reform. The Election Day
mobilized 2,251 voters to cast their ballot under the supervision of the
Independent Election Commission (IEC). See Annex: Mock Elections Jordan.
