Get the facts. Explore multiple perspectives. Ask questions. Keep an open mind. Check in with your values. Vote!

As election day ramps up across America, so too does Menlo’s online voting center! Until 8:00 pm on Tuesday, November 3, a mock election will be open for Menlo students, parents, faculty, staff, and alumni to cast their symbolic votes for the presidential race as well as four propositions (16, 18, 20, and 22) on the California ballot. 

For Upper School students, this exercise caps off a much larger exercise in civic participation, democracy, and civil discourse. Chris Young, Director of Community Engagement, says the Menlo Votes project began with a thorny question: “How can we as a community practice democracy and civil discourse with a diversity of political views at the table, in light of the breakdown of those institutions we are observing at the national level?” The extensive programming leading up to election day is designed with the intention, he says, “for our community to be able to experience something closer to the ideal of a democracy in which everyone has ample time to become informed and vote, and to be able to discuss politics with civility.” 

Early in the semester, advocacy groups learned the Courageous Conversations framework for engaging in challenging, profound conversations about weighty subjects such as race, gender, and politics. A courageous conversation requires every participant to abide by four agreements: 

1. to stay engaged—morally, intellectually, emotionally, and socially—in the dialogue,
2. to be willing to experience discomfort,
3. to speak your truth, 
4. and to expect and accept non-closure at the end of the dialogue.

This groundwork prepared students for over a month of Menlo Votes programming, including debate watch parties and discussions, voter education nights, presentations on the power of the youth vote, and a deep-dive into the four California propositions that students would be called to cast a symbolic vote on, with arguments presented for and against each measure. In a well-attended Zoom webinar, Upper School History teacher Dan Devitt analyzed the dynamics of the presidential race in a presentation entitled “Meltdown: Polarization, Pandemic and the Chaos of the 2020 Election.” Meanwhile, Knight Vision, Menlo’s student-led community engagement club, co-hosted a series of three workshops with the California Reentry Institute on the subject of restorative justice and rehabilitation. 

On Monday, November 2, students heard from a number of their peers, faculty, and Menlo alumnus Antonio Lopez ’12—who is currently running for city council in East Palo Alto—about the variety of ways, from becoming a poll worker to interning for a campaign to running for office themselves, in which our community members are engaged in the political process. 

Community members were asked to attend at least one of these voter education events before participating in the online voting center, to ensure that all participants were informed and empowered to make a choice consistent with their own values. 

All current Menlo students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni are pre-qualified to vote in the Menlo Online Voting Center. If you feel informed and ready to cast your vote, head to the virtual voting booth before 8:00 pm on November 3 and make your voice heard.