The Bernalillo County Clerk’s Bureau of Elections put a lot of effort into making sure Thursday’s mock election at five Albuquerque Public Schools was realistic. Staff members conducted forums at each school where several elected officials spoke, provided the real ballot and the official tabulator, and assured students that this was how the “real” voting process is handled.

Well, almost. Deputy County Clerk Robert Adams said the county was “afraid of being accused of influencing the election,” so the clerk’s office decided not to release the results of the high school mock election until late Monday, one day before Tuesday’s election.

Huh?

OK, maybe this is how Bernalillo County starts making the mock election a little too real. In 2000, it took a month to confirm that Al Gore beat George Bush. It took three weeks to count all the ballots to determine that Bush beat Sen. John Kerry in 2004. And it took 10 days in 2006 to determine that Rep. Heather Wilson beat Patricia Madrid in the 1st Congressional District race.

With its glitches and vote-counting nightmares over the years, perhaps the lesson Bernalillo County officials want to teach students is vote, then wait. But that’s not how it’s done across the country.

Here’s an example in Idaho. where a high school mock election was held and official results were tabulated and, yes, released. And in New Jersey, more than 900 schools will be voting on Oct. 30, with results available that night.

The APS/county election was part of a program called Go Vote!, which was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The Bernalillo County Clerk’s office is the only governmental entity in the country to be awarded the grant, according to an APS press release.

Go Vote! has three components: a candidate forum, a contest to design get-out-the-vote materials, and mock elections, conducted in accordance with the Election Handbook of New Mexico that will resemble the actual elections and will be run by students. Ironically, this might be the best case of the lesson, unintentionally mirroring some infamous real elections in Bernalillo County.

Mock elections were held Tuesday at Sandia, West Mesa, Del Norte and CEPi Charter high schools. Highland High held its election Monday.

The APS release stated that the Bureau of Elections provided schools with voting booths, paper ballots and tabulating machines. “Results will be made available to the public after all the votes are counted,” according to the release.

APS spokeswoman Johanna King said she was under the impression vote tallies would be made at the conclusion of voting so that the educational component would not be lost on students. But she said it was up to the county to make the results public.

Adams said the county did not inform APS of its decision not to release the results until late Monday.

Teachers who spent plenty of time and effort in their lessons to make the mock elections meaningful might start considering another lesson: How to get the county to release their votes so they can get in the full civics lesson without having to explain to students that counting votes in a “real” election isn’t supposed to take a week, no matter what Bernalillo County officials think.