Obama an easy winner in student mock election

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Obama an easy winner in student mock election

Saturday, November 3, 2012

WENATCHEE — Never mind what their parents might think, Wenatchee High School students would re-elect President Barack Obama in a heartbeat. They also strongly support gay marriage and more cautiously approve of marijuana legalization.

Panthers at the polls

Wenatchee High School mock election results (1,374 students voted. All numbers expressed as a percentage of votes)

President/Vice President

Barack Obama/Joe Biden (D) 61.5

Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan (R) 30.4

Other 8

U.S. Senator

Maria Cantwell (D) 62.4

Michael Baumgartner (R) 37.7

U.S. Representative

Dave Reichert (R) 56.1

Karen Porterfield (D) 43.9

Governor

Rob McKenna (R) 54.2

Jay Inslee (D) 45.6

State Rep. District 12, Pos. 1

Cary Condotta (R) 55.7

Stan Morse (R) 44.3

State Rep. District 12, Pos. 2

Mike Armstrong (R) 61.6

Brad Hawkins (R) 38.4

Chelan County Assessor

Deanna Walter (R) 55.4

DeWayne Crater (R) 44.6

Chelan County Commissioner, Pos. 1

Ron Walter (R) 59.8

Gary Schoessler (R) 40.2

Chelan County Commissionner, Pos. 2

Doug England (R) 55.7

Mary Signorelli (D) 44.3

Chelan Superior Court, Pos. 9

Alicia Nakata 36

Travis Brandt 64

Initiative Measure 1185 (2/3 vote to raise taxes)

Yes 50.1

No 49.3

Initiative Measure 1240 (public charter schools)

Yes 58.8

No 41.2

Initiative Measure 502 (marijuana)

Yes 54.5

No 45.5

Referendum Measure 74 (same-sex marriage)

Yes 69.5

No 30.5

Obama wins in statewide mock election

Pres. Barack Obama was a clear winner in a statewide mock election held last week. Students from schools all over the state voted online, using an abbreviated and age-appropriate ballot prepared by the Washington Secretary of State Department. The election was not related to the independent mock election held at Wenatchee High School.

Results of the 2012 Washington State Mock Election were released Friday. More than 38,000 Washington students, grades K through 12, voted in the election exercise in the past week.

Pres. Obama won 69 percent of the vote, compared 31 percent by Mitt Romney. In the governor’s race, 57 percent of students picked Democrate Jay Inslee over 43 percent for Republican Rob McKenna.

Complete results of the statewide mock election can be found online at www.sos.wa.gov/el...>

Some 1,374 Wenatchee High School students out of 2,150 at the school voted in a mock general election Tuesday, Oct. 30, on ballots made for the vote by the Chelan County Auditor’s Office. Wenatchee students strongly supported Pres. Barack Obama, re-electing him with 61 percent of their votes, compared to 30 percent for Mitt Romney. Wenatchee students similarly favored Obama 64 to 30 percent over John McCain in 2008.

Chelan County registered voters didn’t agree with students four years ago.

They favored McCain in the real election by 12 percentage points. It’s likely that the county’s large population of Republican voters will support Romney this year.

While students supported Obama, they didn’t choose Jay Inslee, the Democratic candidate for governor. “I’m not confident I know what that’s about,” said Scott Benner, who teaches world problems, civics and advanced placement classes to seniors.

They also voted conservatively on local races, but liberally on state issues. Nearly 70 percent of students supported same sex marriage. They approved marijuana legalization by a much smaller margin, 55 percent.

Benner said his classes watched all three presidential debates and many students voiced a general dislike of what they said was Romney’s mostly negative style. A lot of students said they felt okay with what Obama has achieved the past four years, considering the economic problems he inherited from the previous administration.

“They were realistic about what he could do,” he said. Benner also believes that the growth of social networking may be causing students to rely more on their peers and many more sources for information, rather than just their parents. Romney may also remind kids too much of President George W. Bush and eight years of war, he said.

In reviewing results of the last six presidential elections going back to 1988, Benner said students only voted against the incumbent twice. They voted for Repubicans four times and Democrats twice. Only once — in 1996 when they supported Bob Dole over Bill Clinton — were their results different from the national election results.

Concerning ballot issues, students have almost always voted yes in past elections, showing a liberal bent to change, Benner said.

Holly Thorpe, 17, a WHS senior and co-founder of the school’s Young Politicians Club, said, “I was a little surprised” by the election results “because I see Wenatchee as a very conservative area.

Thorpe said the results show that times have changed. Issues like gay marriage and marijuana legalization that used to be so hotly debated have ceased to be a question for students.

“Those are things that were unheard of when our parents were in school. There’s been a pardigm shift,” she said. “Students have access to so much more information now.” About Obama’s popularity, Thorpe said while some people think the president has done a poor job in his first term, students still feel he’s the candidate who will best represent young people.

“We’re going to vote for the guy who’s going to fight for our needs,” she said.

Fredi Simpson, Republican party national committee woman and a longtime Wenatchee Republican party leader, said it doesn’t surprise her that high school students would vote more liberal than their parents.

“Young people believe in utopia. They believe everybody should be able to do everything at any cost. They want the best for everyone,” she said. That liberal perspective begins to change when they leave home and have to pay their own rent, buy food and insurance and pay taxes, she said.

Jeanine Butler, Chelan County Democrats chairwoman and former Wenatchee School District assistant superintendent of learning and instruction, said young people she talks with tell her they like what Republicans say about getting government out of their lives, but are very upset when they try to tell them what to do with their bodies.

“That’s an especially big issue with young women,” she said. Students she’s talked to tell her they think the economy is moving in the right direction and believe things would be moving faster if Republican lawmakers were more willing to compromise.

“The young people I talk to know there has to be give and take,” Butler said.

Rick Steigmeyer: 664-7151

steigmeyer@wenatcheeworld.com

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mthompson223 6 months, 3 weeks ago

I wouldn't expect anything less from our youth. I used to be a democrat too when I was that age. I was young, dumb and had nothing to lose. Then I got older, wiser and had something to lose. Naturally, I stopped being a liberal.

Suz 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Most youth is innocent and hopeful. The old too often become bitter and vindictive.

JimboBear 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Youth and innocence don't go far when it comes time to pay the bills Suz.

lonedog3 6 months, 3 weeks ago

but if your a liberel supporter they get someone else to pay the bill. everything is expected to be handed to you.

Larry71 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Im a democrat I still have to pay my bills.

localmormon 6 months, 3 weeks ago

I'm not too sure this many of the students are Democrat. Like the sentiments mentioned near the end of the article, I think the youth despise the Republican intrusion into their lives, even if they are fiscally conservative.

And, being adept at navigating the internet (where Fox News can't push impose its trash as forcefully as it can on the American couch) probably gives the youth an advantage at noticing the contradictions Romney slews. They may not agree with Obama, but they recognize Romney is an embarrassment who has no definitive stance on nearly issue.

kyook 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Methinks you might be projecting, localmormon.

rwaller 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Gives one hope for the future of the community.

JimboBear 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Yes, when we are young, all the hope and change and the handouts are very attractive, and tie right in with our concept that the old foggies don't know much about anything anyway. As youth fades, we begin to realize who is paying for all those giveaways, and our vision becomes a bit more critical. I think I myself was a reasonably liberal Democrat until I was about 30 or so.

rwaller 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Makes it much easier to turn your back or look the other way while claiming a moral high ground.

JimboBear 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Uhhhh . . . I'm not at all sure what you are driving at, Rick. Did I say something about claiming any moral standing? My point was that youth is an overflowing fount of optimism while the reality of life becomes much more apparent as we age and see more of the real world. That has nothing to do with morality or turning your back on anything.

dougmorgan 6 months, 3 weeks ago

More proof that our schools promote the liberal agenda. We will be a liberal county in the next generation and the last area of the state that has conservative values will be gone. Our taxes at work supporting the liberal teachers. Ask a conservative teacher how they are treated by liberal teachers. We are not teaching our kids to think for themselves. They are being indoctrinated. Can't wait for the liberal attacks on my comments.

milo 6 months, 3 weeks ago

If you were right and the students opinions were being shaped by the faculty the charter schools initiative would have lost. It got a 59% yes vote.