An example of a Citizen Action Project, dealing with a local government policy, within a senior American government course, from Columbus, Ohio

In Columbus Public Schools, one of the 20 American government teachers taking part in the Annenberg Civic Education Initiative in the pilot year 2004-2005, incorporated the Citizen Action Project (CAP) into her senior American government course. The students lived up to her hope that they would learn to be critical thinkers who question the status quo. One of the CAP topics grew out of actual problems in access to voting. Six of the students, concerned about the long lines they and others experienced at many polling places in Columbus on Election Day 2004, and dismayed by the fact that students who missed school because of the delay were not excused, decided to do something about the two problems. After much research, they found that many polling places had not had enough workers on hand to meet the needs of the voters, and that many high school students who were old enough to vote were not free to work at the polls or take the time to vote if there were delays, because missed school time was not considered an excused absence in most districts. The students decided to try to have the Ohio Revised Code changed so that working at the polls would be an excused absence in every school district in the state.

After some of their phone calls were brushed aside by officials, their teacher suggested they try identifying themselves in a new way. They called themselves "Concerned Citizens for Democracy," an identity which usually got them a hearing. The county board of elections gave them enthusiastic support and conducted a special training session for

17 and 18 year-olds in the school district who intended to work at the polls in the spring 2005 elections. The students of "Concerned Citizens for Democracy" began by writing letters and lobbying school boards in their own county. After a meeting with their state representative on the issue, they testified at the Statehouse in Columbus at the invitation of another state representative who had sponsored an Ohio General Assembly bill, enabling 17 - 18 year olds in schools to work at the polls during school hours. The students gained much from their research