Ryan Francis Election Day 2011 (Extra Credit)

Ms. Hogben is in charge of making a newsletter to be sent around the neighborhood to the voters, which contains information on each candidate being voted in, their experience, and their qualifications for the position.  

1. How does it feel to know that you have the power to influence who goes into office? Basically how does it feel to know your vote counts?

- To me, voting is a responsibility. I feel as if it's my job to give information, and to pass it on to others, but its also my job to be able to voice my opinion. I feel as if my vote is valuable in a sense. I get to make a decision to be apart of the change that goes in in not only politics, but in Philadelphia as well. Now, my job is also to get voters who don't know their facts or do their research to make the right decision in voting for the right candidates to do their duties to the fullest extent when voted in. So these newsletters go to the houses for promotion towards the campaign, most impotently passing on information.

2. Since you are also in charge of the polling place, what is the process of seeing up the polls and counting the ballots ?

-Ok, so the polls open at 7am and close at 8pm. We as the election board come in at 6:30 to get everything set up and make sure all the machines are working. We usually leave at 9pm after we have meeting and report back on what went right, and what went awry. We used to have a ballot process were we would count the votes, but by 2004 they issued us the machine voting with a computer that basically counts the votes when people go into the booths and make their choices.

3. What is your take on teens going into voting at age 18, and what should they know about voting's "responsibilities"?