What Is the National Student/Parent Mock Election?

The National Student/Parent Mock Election is the nation’s largest and most successful voter education program, according to Time Magazine. It began in 1980 and was authorized in both the Every Student Succeeds Act. Congressional funding was available from 1994 to 2005. Participation on average reached between five million votes in mid-term elections and 12 million in a general presidential election year. Mock Elections are held in all of the United States of America, its territories, the Department of Defense School District, and American schools all around the world.

The goal for 2024 is to return to historical vote levels and school participation. In 2020, actual election votes cast were the lowest they had ever been since World War II with 70% of our voters missing.

Participants in the National Student/Parent Mock Election include kindergartners, elementary, secondary school, and college students in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and in American schools around the world. Since the Mock Election began in 1980, over 76 million young voters, and often their parents as well, have learned what it means to be an American.

More states partner with the National Student/Parent Mock Election than with any other civic education project. The National Association of Secretaries of State officially endorses the project, and in up to thirty-two states it has been coordinated or co-coordinated by the secretary of state or state election director. In others, the governor or another state official has formalized the partnership, while in some states coordination is by groups such as the League of Women Voters, a Presidential Library, or a state social studies council.

The partnerships established since 1980 provided unprecedented opportunities for education among them all:

​

American Association of School Administrators
Barquin International
BrainPop
Council of the Great City Schools
Don’t Forget Ed
National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of Secondary School Principals
National Association of Secretaries of State

National Association of Student Councils
National Council for the Social Studies

National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators
National School Boards Association
NIE Institute
Pearson Foundation
Rand McNally
SAGE
USA Today

Sixty national educational, civic, business, and religious organizations cooperate with the project, including the National Association of State Boards of Education, the National School Boards Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the League of Women Voters of the United States. See the full list at Partners and Cooperating Organizations.

Outstanding mock election projects nominated at the school, school district, and state-level receive awards from the National Association of State Boards of Education, the American Association of School Administrators, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Association of Student Councils, the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, and the League of Women Voters. See the full list at Cooperating Organizations/Partners.

To communicate with our potential audience we rely on gifts-in-kind, technology, and resources from private individuals and corporations, broadcast networks, and publishing companies. In the past, these have included such corporations as The New York Times, USA Today, AOL, Microsoft, Kaplan, Xerox, TIME Inc., CNN, PBS stations, McGraw Hill, ABC TV, Google, the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation, Pearson, and the Pearson Foundation. For 2022 and 2024 cash contributions, as well as in-kind, are urgently needed.

​

Our Vision

Our vision is to be the primary civic education vehicle for youth in the Americas to learn how to choose in a Democracy.

​

Our Mission

Our mission is to promote and defend the importance of voting, making informed and intelligent choosing in a representative democracy.

​

Our Values

Justice, Respect, Trust, Integrity, Accountability, Responsibility, Free Enterprise.