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YLI 2021 National Mock Election and Voting Referendum

The Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) will host its annual National Mock Election from October 18-29, 2021 featuring gubernatorial races for Virginia and New Jersey. In addition to these two exciting races, YLI is offering students in all schools across the U.S. the opportunity to weigh in on a series of questions pertaining to voting in the United States. YLI is the largest program of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, and we believe that politics is an all year, every year endeavor. To this end we want to reinforce the most basic civic responsibility; voting.

In addition to the gubernatorial races for students in Virginia and New Jersey, the questions on the ballot for the entire country include:

Should the right to vote begin at age 16?

Should the United States make Election Day a national holiday?

Should all absentee and mail-in votes only be counted if they are received by Election Day?

Would you trust the use of online voting in elections?

Do you believe a photo ID should be required when voting in an election?

Do you believe the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which ended literacy tests and other barriers to voting should be strengthened?

Would you support a constitutional amendment to make elections for President/Vice President determined by the popular vote as opposed to the Electoral College?

Teachers also have the ability to customize their ballots by adding or removing races or referenda. This popular feature can be used to run student government elections and lessen the amount of time needed by teachers to tally results. As long as the ballot is created by the time polls open on October 18th, teachers can use the YLI mock election in any way they need to increase student knowledge of the democratic process of voting. Polls open at 8am Eastern on October 18th and remain open through 6pm Eastern on October 29th. Results will be available to teachers on October 30. For more information on the Youth Leadership Initiative National Mock Election visit, www.youthleadership.net/learning-programs/mock-election/ or email ylihelp@virginia.edu.