And the winner is...

It’s tough running an election, even if it isn’t on the same scale as oh, an imminent General Election. When we decided to declare Eureka! an independent ‘State of Play’ micronation as part of our 18th birthday celebrations, we knew we needed to take it seriously and give children the chance to vote and express how they want future leaders to shape the world. After all, play is serious work at Eureka!.

Now that we’ve closed our polls and tallied the votes to find the leader for the Eureka! independent ‘State of Play’ I’m feeling sympathetic for the poll workers who will be busy all day (and well into the night) this week—and I only had to count about 250 ballots. With the results in, the clear winner was Scoot, though with 43% of the votes it wasn’t a landslide. Orby came second with 34% and Gordon the Gnome had a strong third with 21% of the vote.

It wasn’t hard to decide which characters at Eureka! would stand as candidates. Orby helps everyone who visits the SoundSpace gallery to expand their senses. Gordon the Gnome helps children learn about the importance of green spaces everywhere in Our Global Garden. And Scoot? He’s one of our best-loved characters and one of the first places children go when they visit Me & My Body. He’s also quite the chatterbox, and while I know there was no electioneering, I’m sure all his visitors were reminded to vote.

We also made sure that our voters could express their opinions with their ballot. We asked them 'what would be the first thing you would change about the place you live in' if they were in charge. Reading the responses, and accompanying illustrations, was the best part of the whole process for me! Many children were concerned about the environment: they wanted an end to pollution, more recycling, and more places to play ('like Eureka' as one nine-year-old said).

There were two office favourites here in the offices. The first was from a four-year-old named Daniel. He wrote: 'I would have a magic wand and make bad people disappear and I would make chickens look lovely by putting bows in their feathers. I would make it summertime all year to enjoy the flowers.'

The second, from Polly, age 4, is this picture:

The past few years have seen quite a few elections with historic or notable results around the world. Our election may not be quite so historic, but it’s great for children to have a playful learning opportunity closer to home. If you’re interested in further exploring the electoral process and upcoming election with your child, here are a few websites we’ve found useful.

United Kingdom Parliament: General Elections Explained (PDF)
CBBC Newsround: General Election special
BBC Teacher’s Notes: Democracy

Allison Tara Sundaram is the Marketing & PR Officer at Eureka!