In Allen County, Ind., which includes Fort Wayne, students will be in school on Election Day, but voters will not. Officials have moved the polling places from schools to churches and other public venues.
"In today's world, we ask a mother to show her driver's license before she can deliver cupcakes to her daughter's classroom," said John H. Weicker, security director for Fort Wayne Community Schools. "But on Election Day, we were allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to walk in the front door."
The wisdom of closing schools on Election Day has skeptics, including Kathy Christie, chief of staff at the nonpartisan Education Commission of the States. She described the effort to separate students from voters as a "knee-jerk reaction."
"It breaks my heart to think we are losing the opportunity to send a very strong message to children about their civic duties," Christie said. "Keeping kids home on Election Day also creates an inconvenience and another worry about day care for their parents."
Chicago is one city where classes will not be canceled, nor polling places relocated, on Nov. 4.
"Our schools are public buildings, and we need to make them as available as possible to our community," said Mike Vaughn, a Chicago Public Schools spokesman. "Our primary concern is that there is not a disruption to the students, so we've made sure the voting booths are not located in high-traffic areas."
It is a decision with which the Cook County clerk, David Orr, whose jurisdiction includes the Chicago Public Schools, disagrees, especially since a record number of voters are expected to cast ballots.
"In an ideal world, it would be nice for children to see voters in their schools, but you have to ask yourself, 'What if?' " Orr said.
