Dr. Richard Chesteen, professor of Political Science at UTM, will be the coordinator for the state of Tennessee’s participation in the National Student/Parent Mock Election (NSPME), the largest student vote activity in the country.

It is a bipartisan endorsed organization that has been supported by almost every national educational organization in the U.S. The election will involve millions of students across the country who will study the national and state level candidates and their positions on important public issues prior to casting their votes.The date for the national mock election is Nov. 1, 2002. Students in grades 1-12 are encouraged to participate.

Chesteen said NSPME is using the Internet to contact teachers, register schools, and inform teachers of candidates and issues. Students can also vote online, making the project quicker and more convenient for teachers.

“By this process NSPME is preparing our future citizens for the type of voter information and process for involvement which are rapidly becoming more central to the election process,” Chesteen said. “It is both an education in citizenship and in the utilization of the Internet as a source for active citizen involvement.”

Chesteen noted that Tennessee citizens will be electing a governor, a United States senator, nine members of the House of Representatives, half of the membership of the Tennessee Senate and all 99 members of the state’s House of Representatives in the November 2002 election.

“This is an excellent opportunity for the young people of the state to learn about who is running and what their positions on public issues are and to actually participate, just like their parents, in voicing their choices,” Chesteen said. In the past, Tennessee has had a central site where teachers could call in the results of elections held at their schools, and such a site will be maintained this year. However, Chesteen said many teachers will choose to use the Internet to vote if their students have such access.

The first NSPME was held in 1980. In 1996 and 2000, a combined total of 10 million votes were cast. The largest number of Internet votes cast in history (over one million) was cast in the 2000 Mock Election.

In the last two presidential election years, over 10 million students, parents and teachers participated in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and 14 countries around the world where Americans are based. Over 40 million have participated since the project began. The National Student/Parent Mock Election is a non-profit organization.

Teachers interested in involving their students in NSPME activities should contact Chesteen at rchestee@utm.edu or (731) 587-7473 as soon as possible. He will then mail or e-mail them a set of instructions on how to register their students for participation, cast their votes and observe the national and state returns on television.

For immediate information on NSPME, teachers can visit the Web site at www.governmentguide.com and follow the link for “Research and Education” under the “Gov Guide Main” list. Teachers can also send questions by e-mail to nspme@aol.com.