Mock elections give students taste of voting

By Tanner Kent
Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO October 30, 2008 11:42 pm

— Dakota Meadows seventh-grader Dylan Neils said he was proud to cast the first ballot of his lifetime for John McCain.
So, too, did fellow seventh-grader Jessica Schafer, who praised the Arizona Senator for “character and integrity.”
Emma Hartmann said she voted for Barack Obama but she would never run for president herself because she “would hate having half the world dislike me.”
But others, like Mankato East senior Joe Musolf, remained a bit more mum.
“You could ask me who I voted for, but I probably won’t tell you.”
After months of preparation — both in and out of the classroom — Dakota Meadows and Mankato East hosted mock elections on Thursday. Dakota Meadows’ election, coordinated through National Student/Parent Mock Election, was decidedly in favor of Obama, who garnered 347 votes to McCain’s 153. In the U.S. Senate race, Franken won by just eight votes while Tim Walz, in the U.S. House race, won in a landslide with 75 percent of the vote. Results from Mankato East’s mock election, through the Youth Leadership Initiative, weren’t announced until this morning.
Despite the results, however, students in both schools took their turn in the voting booth and, at least for a day, the customary “I voted” stickers took on a whole new significance.
“Everybody has them on,” said Mankato East social studies teacher Sheri Robinson. “They’re almost a fashion statement.”
But in this election season, it should come as no surprise that young voters are taking their ballots — despite their mock status — just as seriously as their adult counterparts.
And, in some cases, perhaps more so.
For instance, Robinson’s advanced placement government class spent weeks organizing and researching a town-hall style debate between presidential candidates that took place Oct. 24. Students chose four topics — foreign policy, economy, education and environment — and each student was tasked with arguing against the candidate and stance they support.
That twist, students said, not only made the debate more balanced, but also forced them to cultivate a deeper understanding of the issues — a fact that was clearly evident during a short roundtable discussion in which Robinson’s students offered enough insight to please even the deepest political insiders.
With a roughly even divide between John McCain and Barack Obama supporters, Robinson’s class discussed everything from Obama’s image — “He’s pre-packaged and he’s marketed himself with an enormous budget” — to the race issue — “There’s no question that uneducated white voters hold a massive appeal for McCain just the same way uneducated black voters do for Obama” — to McCain’s vice presidential nomination — “a desperate choice.”
“These students are just as informed as any of the voters out there,” Robinson said. “I’m proud to see they will have a voice.”
Students throughout the Mankato Area School District have been preparing for Election Day in the past months. Jefferson Elementary will be the last of several Mankato elementaries to hold a mock election when it opens its “polls” on Tuesday while West High School is hosting its mock election on Monday. Both high schools also hosted mock debates and both interacted regularly with local politicians and party officials.
At the junior high level, students learned about the voting process and Electoral College. And while Dakota Meadows social studies teacher Erica Kennedy said middle-schoolers are still a bit removed from the political process, she said she’s been surprised to hear so much hallway chatter about presidents, plumbers and Palins.
“It’s been so fun to watch these kids get interested and get involved,” Kennedy said.

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