Currently, a senior in High School must have a government class to graduate high school. This new (or amended) law would require high school seniors to count the ballots in state and federal elections, This would supply a large number of young people to count ballots and votes. they would be split into teams and the teams must end up with the same results or it is counted again.
This would help students understand the importance of elections and give them enough knowledge that they would not be intimidated by voting.
We the people would have all ballots counted and reconsiled in a single night.
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Your intent here is understandable: to teach high schoolers to value the republic through civic service and practical experience in how a constitutional republic operates. But compulsory service is not the way to get high schoolers to value the republic. Human nature precludes people being compelled to value something, even if the thing is intrinsically valuable.
The US historically counted all ballots before midnight of election night, and FL had 90% of all ballots counted within 1 hour of polling place closure in the 2024 election just completed. We don’t need a draft of high school kids to count our ballots.
In the State of Michigan you are required to have a government class to graduate.
Yet we still have an incredible low voter participation percentage in this country This bill would help increase voter participation by educating students on the process and importance of elections.
A secondary benefit would be the vote count could be double (or triple) counted for verification rather than what we have in Detroit, where only certain ballots are double and triple counted.
The basis of a Citizen is not only rights but also Duty and that Duty can be compulsory such as the Military Draft. It goes along that Freedom is not Free and been a Citizen has it’s responsibilities!!!
Citizenship does indeed have its responsibilities. But the US gave up the draft because we found that volunteer military service was better than compulsory military service. Counting ballots would operate similarly; I prefer volunteers. Re the duties of a citizen, I would be content with the citizen being productively self-supporting, involved in the life of his community, willingly paid those taxes that are necessary for the provision of government services, and educated himself on issues of local, state, and national importance so as to make informed choices at the ballot box. As Dems’ election shenanigans have become better known, there has been no shortage of poll watchers to ensure honesty and election volunteers to operate the polls and count ballots.
The draft was stopped quite a while ago, but not registering with the Selective Service System. Today, every male between 18 - 25 must register with the selective system. In fact, in the eighties it was found that even females had to register with the Selective Services, I believe it was over-ruled shortly after. But today, by law, you must register. The draft hasn’t been used in a long time ~1975 but I would argue it wasn’t based on the fact that volunteers make better soldiers, but more that we haven’t had the need for large quantities of soldiers.
Getting back to the students. The reason I think this should be a Ferderal Law is that there is no downside to it. Only benefits, first for the students, getting to learn about elections, and the laws their state has and more importantly, if the laws are being followed. They will learn how to vote, and remove any fear or trepidation of doing something new and unknown. They will learn that voting is important to all, not just citizens(since non citizens have to live by the same). Those are the bigger benefits to students. Of course they will learn to work with others, how to follow rules (Laws) and learning that integrity counts (literally) in life.
The voters, citizens and non-citizens will benefit by having same day results (unlike PA. who are still 11/16/24 counting ballots) , knowing the vote count was accurate and double/triple checked. Today by law in Michigan the ballots are counted by hand, only to verify the machine ballot count. Note: I didnt say the votes are counted, only ballots. The vote count is strictly from the machine and not double checked, which could (and probably does) lead to all kinds of issues and problems.
I proposed this be a federal law because I believe the benefit to the students and populace outweighs any negative arguments.