Voting Opportunities Through Education

Project V.O.T.E.

Last year, thousands of voting machines across Oakland County were made obsolete when the federal government - under the Help America Vote Act - required every community to use a single, standard system of voting.

But what to do with the old machines? Most were in perfectly good shape. It was too expensive to ship the machines, say, to a third-world country for use, so most were headed for the landfill.

We decided to create Project V.O.T.E to connect teachers with local governments so they could take the "gently used" machines for use in the schools.

Now, voting machines once used to help elect U.S. presidents will be used to elect student body presidents, prom queens and homecoming courts. Students will see and experience democracy in action.

Special thanks must go to Kathy Dornan, the City Clerk of Farmington Hills, Tonni Bartholomew, Clerk for the City of Troy and Nancy Weiss, Clerk for the City of Birmingham, for all their work in helping bring Project V.O.T.E together. As always, we appreciate their help and community spirit.

Our thanks, too, to Ed Stevens of Printing Systems, Inc. in Taylor, Michigan, who so graciously donated thousands of ballots for schools to help get Project V.O.T.E off the ground.

 Schools Eagle Instructions (file size 97k)
 Schools Election Reference Guide (file size 62k)

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