New Jersey Mock Election

Mock Election Voting Instructions

School Mock Election Managers: The first thing to do is log onto the Mock Election voter interface at: www.schoolperceptions.com/surveyhome . You will be asked for the E-mail address you used when you enrolled to participate and your password. If you have lost your password, click here.

There are three ways for students in your school to vote in the 2008 Student/Parent Mock Election:

1. Computers set up as voting booths (kiosks) in school.
2. Paper ballots.
3. Individual voter IDs.

School Perceptions, which distributes ballots and instructions on the Mock Election, has sent a "Voter Instruction Kit" to all schools that have enrolled with workable E-mail addresses. If your school hasn't received the "Voter Instruction Kit," go to the "troubleshooting" section of this page. That could be because some school computer systems have blocked mass E-mails, interpreting them as junk mail.

Students aren't required to vote for all of the ballot categories (President, Senate, House or Representatives or issues). They may choose (or the teacher may choose) which categories to consider.

Some schools may want lower grade levels to use the paper-ballot method and the upper grade levels to use the kiosk method. That is OK.

Schools can retrieve their Mock Election results any time after voting begins. To do that, log onto www.schoolperceptions.com/surveyhome and click on the "Results" tab. National results will be available on the National Mock Election website the evening of October 30.

The three voting methods offered in the Voter Instruction Kit are:

1. Voting on shared computers (kiosk method). This is the recommended voting method because it gives students a realistic voting experience. The system has generated a 16-digit kiosk code (Voter ID) for each school that signed up to participate in the Mock Election. Schools can set up numerous Internet-connected computers as "voting machines." Here's how to do that:
     a. On each shared computer, point your web browser to http://www.mockelection2008.org.
     b. Enter the school's kiosk code on each computer, when prompted.
     c. Each student will vote one at a time.
     d. After the vote has been entered, the voter will click "I'm Done" on the last page of the ballot and the computer will be ready for the next student to vote.
     e. When students are finished voting each day, you can turn your computer off. If you want to continue voting the next day, just follow the procedure above.
     f. All voting with the kiosk method should be overseen be a teacher to assure that students don't vote more than once. All voting must be completed by 3 p.m. on October 30.

2. Voting using a paper and pencil ballots. The ballot is now available for the school's Mock Election Manager to print out and distribute to students. Here's how to use this method:
     a. The school's Mock Election Manager (group administrator) must log onto the personal administrator home page (www.schoolperceptions.com/surveyhome) and enter his or her E-mail address and password.
     b. Click on the "Set-up" tab at the top of the page, followed by pressing the left-side tab entitled "Vote using paper ballots."
     c. Print the PDF document shown and distribute the ballot to each student.
     d. Once voting is completed, collect and tabulate the ballots.
     f. The Mock Election Manager logs onto the personal administrator home page again, using the login E-mail address and password to report the school's results to School Perceptions before 3 p.m., October 30.
     g. Click on the "Results" tab at the top of the page, and then press "Report Paper Votes" in the left column.
     h. Fill in the vote totals for each candidate and issues question and send your results to School Perceptions.

3. Voting online with individual Voter ID numbers. Some schools may prefer to issue students their own voting codes so they can vote using their own computers. Here's how to set up this method of voting:
     a. Retrieve individual voter IDs for students by logging onto the personal administrator home page using the ID and password issued in the "Voter Information Kit."
     b. Press the "Set-up" tab at the top of that page, followed by pressing the left-side tab called "Vote using individual codes" to generate a page or pages containing an identification code for every student. The system will generate individual student invitation letters that contain directions and a unique 16-digit voter ID.
     c. The student will need this web address (http://www.mockelection2008.org) and his or her individual voter ID number in order to vote. The ID does not identify the student; it simply limits the student to one vote.
     d. Voting can occur at any time from October 20 to 3 p.m. on October 30 on any computer that has Internet access.

Teachers: If your school has chosen the paper-ballot method of voting, please give copies of the ballot to your students and ask them to vote in this Mock Election. Students aren't required to vote, nor or they required to vote in all of the election categories. For example, if you (or they) don't think students will be interested in categories other than the presidential campaign, they may vote only in that category.

You may distribute paper copies of the ballot to your students, write the candidates' names and parties on a blackboard or project the image of the ballot on a screen or wall using an overhead projector.

Voting must be done no earlier than October 20 and no later than October 30. When your class has voted, collect the ballots and give them to your school's Mock Election Manager no later than 3 p.m., October 30.

Students: To vote, select one (only one) of the boxes for President, in one box for U.S. Senate candidates and in one box for U.S. House of Representatives candidates from your Congressional District. You are encouraged to answer the issues questions on the ballot.

If you are voting online using a computer, you can answer any or all of the questions or click through to the last page of the ballot and select the "I'm Done" button. That will automatically send your vote to the National Mock Election headquarters and prepare the computer for the next student to vote.

Voting is optional and you aren't required to vote in all of the categories.

Troubleshooting FAQs

I Didn't Receive a Voter Instruction Kit. What Should I Do?

All of your school's codes and voting instructions are in this kit. If you didn't receive your kit or have lost it, the first thing to do is check your junk-mail folder. Some schools automatically designate bulk E-mails or E-mails with attachments as junk mail. If your E-mail and the Voter Instruction Kit attachment from School Perceptions can't be found, your best bet is to go online and retrieve your duplicate Voter Instruction Kit. You can do that by going to www.schoolperceptions.com/surveyhome . There you will need to enter your E-mail address and password. When you have logged on successfully, you should select the "Set-up" tab at the top and then select the "Reprint Voter Kit" line in the left column. Go to the bottom of that page and select "Press this link to display your Mock Election Welcome Kit." A PDF version of your kit will be saved on your computer.

I Lost My Password. Where Can I Find It?

If you have lost (or never received) your password from School Perceptions, you can log onto this website to retrieve it: www.schoolperceptions.com/surveyhome . Click on the Lost Password line in the left column and your password will be sent to the E-mail address you type. If all else fails, you can re-enroll your school through October 29 at: www.nationalmockelection.org .

I Received the Same Password for Both Schools I Enrolled. What Can I Do About That?

School Perceptions has assigned the same password for each E-mail address entered into their computer system. Some teachers and administrators who are responsible for the Mock Election being held at two or more schools in their districts sent School Perceptions the same E-mail address for all of their schools. Therefore, they were issued only one password to send in election results if they are using the paper-ballot method of voting. The results for all of the schools will be combined because one password is being used. If you want to report results for each school separately, you will need to use a different E-mail address for each school. To do that, re-enroll each school separately with a different E-mail address. That way you will be able to select a different password for each school. To enroll schools separately, go to www.nationalmockelection.org and click on the "Enroll Now" button. Repeat the process for each school you want to enroll.

I Lost My Password. Where Can I Find It?

What If My Students Want to Vote Only for the Presidential Candidates?

That is OK. Students must be given the option of voting for only those parts of the ballot they feel comfortable responding to. For instance, a student may choose to vote only for candidates for President and the U.S. Senate, but not for a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives or on the issues questions. In fact, it is OK for a student to decline to vote for any candidate or issue or to decline to vote at all.

Can a School Use Both Paper Ballots and Online Voting Booths with Computers?

Yes. You may want some grade levels in your school to use paper ballots and other grade levels to use computers as voting machines The Voter Instruction Kit provides a Voter ID Number (a 16-digit code) for you to use when you set up the computers being used as voting booths or kiosks. Votes cast online by computers are sent immediately to School Perceptions. You would need to use the procedure described in your Voter Information Kit to report your school's paper-ballot results to School Perceptions. The three methods of voting are described above.

How Do I Set Up My Classroom Computer So Students Can Vote?

The most important thing is to be sure the computer is set up to access websites through a browser. Get into your browser (e.g. - Internet Explorer, Foxfire, Safari) and go to the web address listed in the computer-voting section of your Voter Instruction Kit. You will then see a screen with four boxes where you can enter the 16-digit ID code you were assigned by School Perceptions. Your computer(s) then will be ready for the first student(s) to vote.

What Should I Do When the Last Student Votes On Our Voting Kiosk?

After the last student clicks "I'm Done" on the last page of the ballot, you can close your browser and turn your computer off. If you want to have absent students vote the next day, follow the set-up instructions in the paragraph above. Students can vote until 3 p.m. on October 30, but each student can vote only once.