If U.S. school students were allowed to vote, they would elect Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, according to a poll by U.S. publisher Scholastic released on Tuesday.
Almost a quarter of a million students voted online and by mailing paper ballots between August and Oct. 10 with 57 percent choosing Obama over his Republican rival John McCain, who garnered 39 percent of the vote.
In key swing states McCain took Colorado, Indiana and Missouri, while Obama won other battlground states including Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Since 1940 the results of the Scholastic Election Poll have picked the winner in all but two elections — 1948, when the students chose Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S. Truman, and 1960 when they voted for Richard M. Nixon over John F. Kennedy.
But Scholastic points out that the poll is not based on a scientifically designed sample of the student population and is instead an education activity to encourage thought and debate.
“The Scholastic Election Poll is a fun way for students to apply their knowledge of the candidates and the electoral process and to get children excited about politics so they’ll grow up to be well-informed citizens who vote,” said Rebecca Bondor, the editor in chief for Scholastic Classroom Magazines.
About four percent of the students this year chose to write in the name of another candidate to vote for — the highest percentage in the history of the poll.
Among the candidates written on ballots were Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, Republican Rep. Ron Paul and Independent candidate Ralph Nader. “A handful of votes” were also cast for television comedian Stephen Colbert.
Photo credit: Scholastic/Seventh graders at Transfiguration School in New York City vote on October 10, 2008 - Miles White
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13 comments so far
Why does this surprise anyone? Obama is relying on the ignorance of the voters to win this election. Young voters, with very little understanding of the issues, and absolutely no historical perspective are some of his strongest supporters. The more one knows about Obama, his policies, his record and his associations, the less appealing he becomes.
- Posted by Fred JonesLike what Fred says, this plays all back to the comment that got Paris Hilton mad… Obama is just a celebrity, of course students would vote for them, these are the same types of people that made Britney spears and the new kids on the block famous… is that really a good sign that their opinion is useful to the adults out there?
- Posted by BenThen again, maybe the kids are smart enough to see that John McCain is nothing but a cranky old coot and Sarah Palin is an unqualified nitwit.
- Posted by Chet HayesWhy does this surprise anyone? McCin is relying on the ignorance of the voters to win this election. Grredy, self-interessted voters, with very little understanding of the issues, and absolutely no historical perspective are some of his strongest supporters. The more one knows about McCain, his policies, his record and his associations, the less appealing he becomes.
- Posted by suzanneI’m glad that school children aren’t voting in this election, of course give Obama time and we’ll have his school choir and school age army constitunially able to pull the lever in the next election.
- Posted by chuckcute suzanne….original.
Since the scoialist have already taken over the school system, why would this be a surprise that they’ve been able to indoctrinate the young that the second coming of the obamessiah is a good thing.
Sad…it’ll be McCain/Palin in an electoral landslide.
- Posted by soccerdadA lot of young people vote the same way that their parents would vote. Parents have a lot of influence on the political views of their kids when they are younger. That is why this is a pretty good indicator that Obama may have a good shot at winning this thing.
- Posted by NicholeInteresting to hear kids picked Nixon over JFK, when he was the rock-star/royalty candidate of his day. I’m a former McCain supporter who will be voting for Obama, mainly because of the Palin VP pick. I got enough of salt of the earth political figures lacking any real ability to run the country, and I’m not thrilled about putting another one so close to the presidency again. That and McCain backtracking on so many of his positions just to appeal to the evangelicals who have somehow became the republican party base in the last 8 years. In short, I’d rather run the risk of socialism than theocracy.
- Posted by BrandonI think it reflects the children’s parents. A new CBS/NYT poll has Obama at 53%, McCain 39%.
- Posted by piktorObama just a celebrity? He graduated from Columbia University and then went to Harvard Law. His second year at Harvard he was chosen for the most prestigious Law Review in the country. The next year as President of that law review he supervised 80 editors (probably more people than Palin supervised in Wasilla). Then he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law. McCain graduated No. 894 out of 899 from the Naval Academy - Look it Up. Obama is my choice of celebrities.
- Posted by Joe[...] Source: U.S. school students choose Obama over McCain, vote shows The Kid Approved by Just breathe…, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Posted in Current Events, Politics | Leave a Comment [...]
- Posted by Just breathe… » Blog Archive » Kid ApprovedObama relying on the ignorance of voters to win? What about McCain choosing Palin and arrogantly thinking she’d rein in the Hillary votes because she’s a woman? If you must know, Fred Jones, a much higher percentage of college grads and informed voters are going to vote for Obama. And what’s with this socialism brouhahas anyway? It might do some people good to keep it down with watching that hate-spewing Fox News sometimes.
- Posted by RenI saw some of the grade school Scholastic reporters interviewed on television yesterday and they sounded more intelligent and well-informed than a good deal of the adult talking heads we’re subjected to these days. Like another poster I noted that one of the two times in the past 68 years when their vote did not reflect the actual election was when they picked Nixon over Kennedy, who was the younger, cooler, “celebrity” candidate at that time. Pooh-pooh on comments about liberal “indoctrination” in the schools — these kids voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004!
- Posted by Sasha Carr