The Fall 2022 election season has ended, and the Bulldog Press staff did a lot of work to inform the student body about the election season.

Students interviewed teachers on their perspectives about voting. Students also promoted voting through a collaboration with PBS Utah and She Votes Utah on social media. And one student interviewed long-time Salt Lake County Clerk, Sherrie Swensen, about election security for the 2022 fall election.

Judge teachers talked about the importance of voting.

“I always vote. Voting is a way that we can take responsibility for our government, and it’s important for future generations,” said Judge U.S. Government teacher, Diana Pugh,

The emphasis on voting coming from these interviews underlines the importance of  using your voice to vote.. It’s especially significant for students at Judge to have the influence of their teachers to vote.

Along with that, the Judge Counseling Department helped register students who are eligible to vote.

“It doesn’t matter how you vote to me,” Jeanette Sawaya said. “Just use your right to vote.”

Along with the interviews with teachers, junior Ted Hyngstrom was able to interview Salt Lake County Clerk, Sherrie Swensen, who has been in office since 1991. In this interview they spoke about the process of securing the election process. Swensen assured Hyngstrom that voting fraud is almost impossible with their process of voting.

“The idea that someone could insert a bogus ballot into our process is absolutely impossible,” Swensen said. “The one time that we had a case of voter fraud was back in 2006.”

The person that was accused of committing voter fraud that year was prosecuted. She also said that the most common type of voter fraud is when family members think it’s okay to fill out ballots for a relative (which is a felony). This interview about the voting process helped clear up the ideas of election security.

The Bulldog Press also used their partnership with She Votes Utah, a new initiative from KUER Radio and PBS Utah, Utah’s public media stations. The initiative encourages women in Utah, especially new voters, to participate in elections by providing them with accurate information. Student journalists promoted voting on the Bulldog Press Instagram account, using information from She Votes Utah. In turn PBS Utah promoted the media produced by the students on their social media channels.

During this election, Judge Memorial students used their resources to spread accurate information to their peers at Judge Memorial about voting, especially the 30 seniors who were eligible to vote in this year’s midterm elections.