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Obama gains slim victory in FLHS mock election
Clint Riese
Staff Writer
If the presidential election was decided solely by the students at Forest Lake High School, Barack Obama would have had to wait until the last vote was tallied before declaring victory.
Of the nearly 1,300 votes cast in the school’s mock election Nov. 4, the Democratic president-elect defeated John McCain by just eight, or less than 1 percent.
This marks at least the fifth-straight election in which the student body’s nomination reflected the nationwide choice.
“Usually when you do mock elections, the student vote is a mirrored representation of real life,” said Sue Stennes-Rogness, one of the teachers who helped organize the effort. “They vote like their parents.”
Indeed, 74 percent of the participants indicated that they voted the same as their parents in the majority of races.
Stennes-Rogness said the numbers have historically leaned on the conservative side, with Republican candidates winning by larger margins than Democrats.
In this year’s other contests, the students favored Republican Norm Coleman over Al Franken by a 717-386 margin, or 56 percent to 30 percent. In the District 6 Congressional race, the Rangers gave Republican Michele Bachmann 56 percent, or 576 votes, compared to 337, or 33 percent, for El Tinklenberg. Of the 253 voters who live in District 8, 136, or 56 percent, favored Democrat Jim Oberstar, while 117 punched votes for Michael Cummins.
Administrators say the real winner of this year’s mock election is the turnout, with over 70 percent of the student body taking time out of their day to vote.
“We have never had anywere near this level of participation,” said principal Steve Massey.
For the first time, teachers allowed students to use class time to vote. In the past, they could choose to do so in the cafeteria.
“I think a lot of kids didn’t like taking time out of their lunch,” said Stennes-Rogness. “[This year] by the fifth hour most of my students had already voted. We had an increase largely because we made it easier.”
The staff set the voting up electronically for the first time, putting the burden on students to get to a computer if they wanted to vote.
“We tried to replicate a real scenario,” Massey said. “We didn’t want to give out paper ballots and just say here, vote. Kids had to take the intiative.”
The success of this year’s student vote has administrators thinking of expanding the program in the future. Massey said he is considering having debates where students can advocate for their candidate.
“We talked about it,” he said. “I think that would be a neat idea in the future of this process. It is a piece that may evolve.”
Even without a debate, students have election fever this week.
“There’s a level of energy about the results, too,” Massey said. “You hear them talking about the results, hear them excited about it, hear them complaining about it. It covers the gamut as you would expect.”
The lessons from the election continue to be a focal point in classrooms.
“We’re talking a lot about the results and their impact,” said Stennes-Rogness. “I took time out of each class I teach.”
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