Educating a County's Voters

[Airbrush]

Does anyone think that people should understand the voting process for their individual county?  It seems to me that in high school, in the 12th grade, just before voters are 18 years old and can vote, they should take a civics course that explains, among other things, the voting process in their own county.  Maybe this already exists in high school, anyone know?  I still don't know exactly what happens to my mail-in ballot after I drop it in the box.  What security methods are used to ensure nothing funny happens with the ballots?  What will happen when the handling of the ballots is controlled by a certain party?

[Peterkin]

29 minutes ago, Airbrush said:

It seems to me that in high school, in the 12th grade, just before voters are 18 years old and can vote, they should take a civics course that explains, among other things, the voting process in their own county. 

Absolutely! I gather it used to be more rigorous, as well as standard in all schools, but here is an article on what's happening in the US now.

I haven't checked whether it's mandatory in Canad now, but resources are available to teachers.https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=med&dir=bkg&document=bkg_civic&lang=e . When I went to school, lessons on government structure, responsibilities, powers, parliamentary procedure  and electoral process were part of the History/Geography program in Grades 7, 8 and 12.    

[Airbrush]

On 1/21/2022 at 4:05 PM, Peterkin said:

Absolutely! I gather it used to be more rigorous, as well as standard in all schools, but here is an article on what's happening in the US now.

I haven't checked whether it's mandatory in Canad now, but resources are available to teachers.https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=med&dir=bkg&document=bkg_civic&lang=e . When I went to school, lessons on government structure, responsibilities, powers, parliamentary procedure  and electoral process were part of the History/Geography program in Grades 7, 8 and 12.    

My experience is nothing was ever mentioned about the voting process, how ballots are transported, tallied, and kept secure from sketchy "employees."

Also, they should explain what voter fraud is, how people try to commit voter fraud, what is the punishment if you get caught, etc.  I've heard that real voter fraud is very rare is most commonly done by impersonating someone you knew that died.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Airbrush

[Peterkin]

25 minutes ago, Airbrush said:

Also, they should explain what voter fraud is, how people try to commit voter fraud, what is the punishment if you get caught, etc.  I've heard that real voter fraud is very rare

Exactly. It's one of those hobgoblins the Republicans trot out every election, to cover up their massive voter suppression. I'm pretty sure civics classes wouldn't cover that as well as they ought, simply because, in the US, the education system is under the control of state authority. OTH, it would be quite useful to give Stephen Colbert's and John Oliver's shows as homework, with a quiz every week.

[MigL]

Really ?
You think 'comedy news' should teach us about good governance ?

I always found it interesting that most voters ( myself included ) know the least about the level of government that affects them most.
I know quite a bit about our Canadian Federal Government, and quite a bit about Ontario's Provincial Government, but know almost nothing about Municipal Government.

[Peterkin]

34 minutes ago, MigL said:

You think 'comedy news' should teach us about good governance

No. Educational institutions should teach us about how governance is supposed to work. Unfortunately, it does a very poor job of that, in the hands of conservative state and provincial governments. Public television and radio should tell us about the daily activities of government, and usually tries, even though it's underfunded and undervalued.  Comedy news tells us the things regular news - for whatever reason - doesn't.  

[iNow]

Consumers of the programs demand it.

Few people want to eat their broccoli unless it’s swimming in cheese as a soup. Same with news. Folks will watch something that rewards them with laughter more than they’ll tune into C-Span to see firsthand what the joke’s about. They’d rather watch opinionated outrage on Fox and easy conspiracies on Newsmax than sit down for PBS Newshour.

Civics not being taught in schools is another matter entirely. With the way the GOP and small minded small government ideologues keep cutting funding and taxes, schools can barely continue teaching arts, music, etc., let alone pay teachers well enough to encourage them to choose to even if such classes were offered.