In this school’s election, it’s pizza vs. chicken nuggets, with democracy as the winner

The library at Salt River Elementary School is anything but silent on a recent Tuesday morning.

There’s blaring patriotic music from the loudspeaker as teachers and staff put finishing touches on decorations welcoming students on Voting Day. Books about democracy top the shelves at the entrance of the library. Every computer monitor reads “VOTE” in big letters, and red-white-and blue garlands line the walls.

In one corner, cardboard partitions serve as privacy booths for students to cast their ballots.

Setting aside for now the looming national election, the students at this tribal school in the swing state of Arizona will be voting on their favorite school lunch. The choice in this hard-fought campaign? Pizza, or chicken nuggets.

The stakes are high: Whichever menu item triumphs will be served next week as the students follow the U.S. presidential election. It’s part of a broader effort to teach even the youngest kids about democracy, and how their voices matter.

“I want these kids to grow up to be the voters of tomorrow,” says Dawn Burstyn-Meyers, who brought the annual event to this school 20 years ago, through a nonprofit called Kids Voting Arizona. “To maybe become a president or councilman to help their community.”

Building civics into the curriculum

Every year, students at the school, east of Scottsdale, get to choose between their favorite things: outdoor activities, school subjects and – this year – the top school lunch. Next week, they’ll also take part in a mock election to vote for president and vice president of the United States.

Teachers here are centering their lessons on civics, voting procedures and democracy. In Meyers’ music and movement class, the kindergarteners learn how to spell the word “vote.” Pom-poms in hand, they chant each letter as they form its shape with their bodies.

In Audrey Yellowhair’s class, sixth graders are assigned topics related to voting procedures they must present to their class. Joseph Miller reads aloud a poster his group is preparing: “The new president has to fight for our country and also heal the middle class and lower class.” Alonzo Lopez has been discussing the election with his family at home, and says exercising one’s civic duties is essential, especially for Native Americans like him. “It’s important,” he says, “because our ancestors weren’t able to vote.” Lopez has O'odham ancestry, like many who live in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC).

This year marks a century since the Indian Citizenship Act was passed by Congress, giving Native Americans the right to vote. But voter suppression tactics like literacy tests, inaccessible polling places and stringent voter ID laws prevented Native Americans in Arizona from voting until the 1970s, making them one of the last groups of Americans to be granted suffrage.

Voter turnout continues to be a challenge on this reservation, says Martin Harvier, the SRPMIC tribal council president.

He and his team are working hard on get-out-the-vote efforts, and these students are a part of it: “Hopefully the kids are also going home and letting their parents know, ‘Hey, I voted today and we would like you to go vote, in not only our tribal elections, but the national elections,' which is a very important election, we feel, in Indian Country. ”

Billboards for the national election dot the roads along the reservation, including signage in the O’odham and Piipaash languages, spoken by some families here.

For nearly two decades, Harvier has been coming to Salt River Elementary to take part in Voting Day. At 11 a.m., the students head to the library, where they receive a ballot, fill it out in a privacy booth and drop it into a ballot box. Then, Harvier places an “I Voted Today” sticker on their shirts.

'We know our voice needs to be heard'

Lynette Stant is wearing a T-shirt that reads “Registered Indigenous Voter” as she supervises her third graders. She’s beaming with pride, watching them take part in democracy.

“To put this into perspective, my parents were 9 years old when Indigenous people were given the right to vote [in Arizona]. I’m one generation removed,” she says. “So instilling the concept of voting in our students now is so important.”

She adds that her students have held debates in class about which presidential candidate will best serve their community’s needs. Some are especially passionate about economic issues, while many others are fervent supporters of women’s rights.

“As Indigenous people, we know the value of our voice because everything that we do is tied to the federal government, whether it be land, whether it be health care, whether it be education,” Stant says. “We know our voice needs to be heard.”

Once the ballots for favorite school lunch are in, the tension at Salt River Elementary is palpable. The student council gathers to count the votes.

Finally, as the school day comes to a close, the students stream back into the library, eagerly awaiting the results. Amid murmurs of support from both pizza and chicken nugget voters, the loudspeaker crackles at last.

“Are we ready for the results of our election?” asks Principal Amanda Guerrero. A silence takes over the library for the first time that day, until she announces that, with 137 votes, “the winner is … pizza!”

Cheers, screams and moans erupt. The crowd can hardly contain themselves. One disappointed nuggets-supporter tells NPR she was certain her candidate would win, but that partaking in the democratic process was still worth her while.