Give Pistachio a Chance
By Bill Woolley

With respect to teachers across the country who take the initiative to hold mock presidential elections in their schools, we must address the ballot access problem that mirrors that of the real presidential elections.

In 2000, many schools across the country helped students participate in the National Student/Parent Mock Election. The voting rate, sponsored in part by the Cable News Network (CNN) in schools and o­n-line that November, was extraordinary. There were so many votes cast by student-citizens o­n line - more than 5.2 million – that the computers became overloaded, leaving thousands of votes still unaccounted for a full day after the “e-polls” closed.

For the record, George W. Bush won that vote by some 2.3 million votes, to Al Gore’s 1.8 in the mock election. Even more striking was that the remaining million-plus votes went to candidates from seven other parties listed o­n the official mock election ballot.

Seven other? Yes. The CNN ballot appropriately included Howard Phillips (Constitution Party), Ralph Nader (Green Party), Bernie Palicki (Independent), Howard Browne (Libertarian Party), David Reynolds (Socialist Party), Pat Buchanan (Reform Party) and John Hagelin (Reform-Natural Law Coalition). Fact is, it could have included many more.

Project Vote Smart (1-888-VOTE-SMART or www.vote-smart.org) provides a wealth of free information to citizens in regard to politics, candidates and elections. It lists no fewer than 175 presidential candidates representing some three dozen parties.

I can’t vouch for many of them, but this is America and the list is a legitimate compilation of Democracy; of all known possible and declared candidates for the office of President.

The candidates listed, according to the Vote Smart Web site, “either formally filed with the Federal Election Commission, have declared their candidacy through other means, have had draft committees established, or have been mentioned in various media as potential or declared candidates.”

Some of the more interesting are: Clifford R. Catton (Church of God Party), Thomas Wells (Family Values Party), Earl F. Dodge (Prohibition Party) and Temperance Alesha Lance-Council (Anti-Hypocrisy Party), Bradford James Lyttle (U.S. Pacifist Party); and Jackson Kirk Grimes (United Fascist Union Party).

Even more intriguing were: Isabell Masters (Looking Back Party), Barry Who (Comedian), Felix (Lettuce Party), Da Vid (Light Party) and Michael W. ‘Mike’ Bay (National Barking Spider Resurgence Party). Who knew spiders could bark?

For the most part, the National Student/Parent Mock Election ballot stuck with presidential candidates who qualified in a majority of states to be o­n the adult-voter ballots.

Voters in Massachusetts, to the surprise of many, saw a half-dozen presidential candidates listed o­n their ballots in the past election.

But many mock election ballots mirror the bootless two-party system that is promoted in adult voting sectors as well. Beverly’s elementary school students are typically limited in their choices. Their ballots offer up o­nly the Republican and the Democrat candidates - a lot like making a kid pick o­nly chocolate or vanilla o­n a visit to Baskin-Robbins.

At the middle school level the story is similar. At Beverly Memorial middle school, o­nly four of the six presidential candidates were listed o­n the ballot, and running mates were named for o­nly two of the four.

Optimistically speaking, our teachers will have another chance this year to teach future voters that there are more than two political parties. By then, with any luck, there will be more than six names o­n presidential ballots for adults. Let’s give pistachio a chance.

Other articles by Bill Woolley.

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