Graphic with a blue background and the headline “Chestnut Log Students Make Voices Heard in Mock Election.” Two photos appear at right. In the first, three smiling students stand in a classroom holding small white cards to their foreheads or chests. In the second, a girl rests her cheek on her hand as she looks at a laptop, with a “Vote” sign in the foreground.

Chestnut Log Middle School Students  Make Their Voices Heard in Mock Election

DCSS

November 5, 2026

While more than 2.8 million Georgians were casting ballots during early voting, students at Chestnut Log Middle School were making their voices heard, too.

The school held a mock election on Oct. 28 in which students voted for offices including U.S. Senate, U.S. House and state constitutional offices such as governor, lieutenant governor and secretary of state.

Each student received a voter identification number. Instead of the Georgia peach sticker adults get after voting, students received a sticker from a teacher, said sixth-grade social studies teacher Rashard Leonard.

“I didn’t know there were so many things to vote for,” Paisleigh Johnson, one of Leonard’s students, said.

Chestnut Log registered for the mock election with ENGAGE Youth in Government, an organization that teaches young people how government works so they can be active participants in democracy as adults.

Leonard said the mock election aligns with what students are learning in social studies. Sixth-graders are studying government and the economy in Europe, seventh-graders are studying the same topics in the Middle East, and eighth-graders are learning about statehood and how the first governments in America were established.

“The mock election was a fun, engaging activity that allowed students to understand the real-world connections of their social studies lessons, and prepare them to be informed voters in the not-too-distant future,” Leonard said.