Local high school students picked the winning candidate in this year's historic presidential race nearly a week before Election Day. In fact, they gave Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) a victory that more closely resembled the Electoral College vote he captured rather than the closer popular vote.
Obama and Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) made it look easy with their presidential and senatorial wins, respectively, wins that were indicative of the backlash against Repubican incumbent President Bush.
Blame it on a low approval rating for Republican incumbent President Bush, the struggles with the economy or a love affair with the articulate Obama. Among students Obama and Biden defeated Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Gov. Sarah Palin by a three-to-one margin, 44,778 to 14,983 (with 2,560 voting for other candidates).
Congressman Mike Castle (R-Del.) barely squeaked by his Democratic opponent, garnering 47 percent of the vote to Karen Hartley-Nagle's 44 percent for Delaware’s lone U.S. House of Representatives seat. Libertarian Mark Anthony Parks received 3 percent of the vote.
Participants in the Mock Election didn’t mind Biden running for two offices, handing him an easy victory in the U.S. Senate seat. He captured 75 percent of the vote to defeat Republican challenger Christine O’Donnell.
Student representatives from throughout Delaware convened in Legislative Hall Friday in Dover to present results from their schools in the 2008 Student/Parent Mock Election Convention. From Oct. 27 to 29, more than 60,000 students cast their electronic ballots for national and statewide races.
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The Mock Election is linked to the state social studies content standards, said Christopher R. Portante, community relations coordinator for the Department of State.
At McKean High School, seniors Mike Menago and Karimah Jackson and junior Margarita Bacon voted for Obama. McKean junior Paul Helck was one of the few in his school that voted for McCain.
“I voted for Barak Obama because he’s very articulate,” Jackson said. “He explains himself well and I feel as though he can bring about a lot of change.”
Specifically, Jackson and Bacon believe Obama will do more to help the little guy.
“I feel like he knows where we come from – the people who ain’t rich,” Bacon said.
Menago expected Obama’s landslide victory while Jackson and Bacon were surprised.
“He seems to be more of a celebrity candidate,” Menago said. “The youth can definitely relate to him more than McCain.”
Helck knew McCain would lose at his school, but he was hoping it was not a landslide.
“I wore a John McCain shirt one day and people were going after me,” he said. “I knew we were a liberal school but I thought there was going to be more votes for John McCain.
“I looked at how the candidates were going to get us off of foreign oil and what they were going to do in Iraq,” Helck said. “I liked John McCain a lot more on both of those issues so I ended up voting for him.
Students also researched a local candidate in preparation for the mock election.
"I researched Mike Castle,” he said. “He’s really nice. I thought Mike Castle would have won [with a higher percentage] because he’s got a really good record but maybe the students don’t know that. They just voted Democrat because that’s the way to go.”
McKean social studies teacher Ashley Miller said she had her students research two issues for both presidential candidates. They went to the candidates’ Web sites and looked at their stances on the economy, then had to explain who they supported and why.
At Brandywine High School, student organizers from teacher Kenneth Rivera’s current issues class came close to simulating the real thing, with students signing in at a table set up in the library and voting behind a curtain draped over a few computers.
Brandywine High seniors David Wenerd, Jessica Hendricks, Lakisha Stanford, Yianni Jannelli, Serena Walker and junior Marcus Thompson voted for Obama.
“I liked Obama for universal healthcare,” Wenerd said. “It’s important for when we get older. Everybody should have equal opportunity to have universal healthcare.”
For Jannelli, the Obama-Biden ticket stood out in terms of foreign policy.
“Biden’s probably one of the most experienced senators around when it comes to foreign policy and he seems to have a much more peacefully based stand on how to deal with other countries,” he said.
Walker said Obama shows that he cares a lot about young people.
“I have to go to college next year. So, I know he’s going to do stuff that will help me pay for college,” she said. “He likes to get people together and have everybody work together. Not one person can do it by himself. I believe it does take a group of people and the United States is a united people.”
Brandywine seniors Kelsey Bredimus and Colleen Ruoff voted for McCain.
“I agreed with most of his issues like abortion and healthcare,” Bredimus said.
“I also voted for McCain mostly because of the issues like abortion,” Ruoff said. “I don’t like universal healthcare.”
Rivera said he and other teachers stayed neutral while instructing students on the Republic’s electoral process.
“What you see is the whole political socialization factor,” Rivera said of how students voted. “They’re going to represent or model exactly how their parents vote. That’s the No. 1 influence on them. The point is for them to be engaged civically at a young age. For them to organize it is even better.”
The Mock Election is administered by the Commissioner of Elections with assistance from the Office of the Secretary of State, the Department of Education, the Department of Technology and Information, the Democracy Project at the University of Delaware, The News Journal and the League of Women Voters.
