A Culture of Voting... Means Voting in EVERY Election!

GOOD MORNING AND HAPPY FRIDAY!

All In For Autism Community Workout Event- All In For Autism Community WOD Event- Saturday, April 28th. Go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/all-in-for-autism-community-wo… to register.

Stars and Cars Event- The Rompin Stompin Big Blue Band is partnering with the Cars and Stars event on the Downtown Square in Graham this coming Saturday, April 14th. Admission is FREE! Loads of fun for the entire family beginning at 10 am.

Family Block Party with the band "Kicked to the Curb” from 5 to 8 pm. Bounce Houses for the kids. Concession Stand selling Meal Deals and Snacks. Kona Ice will be there selling snow cones. A movie will be shown at dusk (around 8:15) on the lawn by the big chalkboard! So, bring a chair or a blanket to sit on, and bring a jacket, because it might get chilly! Come support a great event and the AWESOME RSB3[1] !!!

GHS One Act Play- Break a Leg at the UIL Regional Contest today in Lubbock!

GHS UIL Academics- Best of luck at the UIL Regional Contest in Lubbock on Saturday!

Lady Blues Softball- BIG CONGRATS on the victory over Burkburnett to remain undefeated in district!  Good luck this evening at home vs Abilene Wylie.

Graham Steer Baseball- Best of luck this evening at home vs the Wylie Bulldogs!

GPEF Hall of Honor Nominations- Our inaugural Hall of Honor induction was a huge success and it's time to begin the nomination process for the next group that will be inducted in the Fall of 2018. Completed nomination forms are due by Wednesday, June 27, 2018. You can retrieve the nomination forms at the Graham ISD Administration Office at 400 3rd Street or from the web at https://drive.google.com/…/15AEix6vMohbWy1P8WdQ9jcpUK4thLm-….

A Culture of Voting… Means Voting in EVERY Election!

Register to vote now until April 23rd for the May 22nd Primary Runoff Election.

One of the Oxford English Dictionary definitions of culture is: The ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society. Creating a culture of voting is encouraging eligible citizens in a democracy to participate in the choosing of its leaders. The more people participate, the more the power is spread among the voters and the stronger that society’s democracy will be. And as you know, that is one of the central tenets of the Texas social studies curriculum in every grade. While some powerful elected leaders are scared of school districts creating a culture of voting, their reaction should be what raises concern, not the idea that people will be exercising their civic duty.

Broken down further, social behavior is comprised of habits. I’ve heard over and over that it takes 21 days to create a habit. Research has been conducted on this and findings show that it will more likely take anywhere from two to eight months to build a new habit. Simple habits, like drinking an additional glass of water, may be attained with less practice than a habit that is harder to integrate. That said, voting isn’t something we get to do every single day. If so, it wouldn’t be so hard to create that habit and cement the culture of voting. Since there are only a handful of opportunities to vote in any given year, we must embrace each and every one, be prepared for it, and model the behavior for children from when they are very young until they are old enough to vote themselves.

This year is an election year, and the next election is the primary runoff election on May 22nd. May is always a very busy time for students, educators, and families. But…that doesn’t make voting any less important. These elections determine the options for the November general election. Primary runoff elections have historically had staggeringly low participation rates. It is almost embarrassing!

2016 May Primary Runoff (Presidential) Republican

-Percentage of Voting Age Population registered: 73.75%

-Percent of turnout to Registered: 2.64%

-Percent of turnout to Voting Age Population: 1.95%

2016 May Primary Runoff (Presidential) Democratic

-Percentage of Voting Age Population registered: 73.75%

-Percent of turnout to Registered: 1.31%

-Percent of turnout to Voting Age Population: 0.97%

2014 May Primary Runoff (Gubernatorial) Republican

-Percentage of Voting Age Population registered: 71.91%

-Percent of turnout to Registered: 5.53%

-Percent of turnout to Voting Age Population: 3.98%

2014 May Primary Runoff (Gubernatorial) Democratic

-Percentage of Voting Age Population registered: 71.91%

-Percent of turnout to Registered: 1.48%

-Percent of turnout to Voting Age Population: 1.06%

Wow. We really have some work to do on getting people out to vote. As you can see from the data above, voter registration grew almost 2% between 2014 and 2016, but voter turnout has been dismal. In the last gubernatorial primary runoff elections, a total of about 5% of Texans voted. In the 2016 presidential election cycle, less than 3% of Texans voted in the primary runoff elections. That tells us two things:

1) People who voted had A LOT of power.

2) Very few people are making big decisions about how we run our state and who will lead it.

Creating habits and changing culture takes time, but the results of engaging in our democracy will be worth the work!

CORNY JOKE OF THE DAY:

What do you call a happy bunny?(Scroll down for the answer.)

An Hop-timist