Published: October 28, 2008 11:18 am      

Mock the vote

LHS students cast ballots in simulated election

If it were up to a majority of Logansport High School students, the 44th president of the United States would be Barack Obama. 

Shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, 1,094 teenagers cast their votes in a mock election. By 10:30 a.m., those votes had been tallied, and Obama had been named the winner, defeating McCain by 440 votes. Obama received 727 votes, or 67 percent, while McCain received 287, or 26 percent. 

The remaining seven percent went to four other candidates: Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, 10 votes; Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party, 18; Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party,16; and Ralph Nader of the Independent Party, 36.

Seniors Chris Babcock and Lanette Urbin backed Obama while their classmates, Zachary Rominger, Matt McKay and Emily Page voted for McCain.

“Quite frankly, I don’t believe Obama is ready for the presidency,” McKay said. “He can talk the talk but not walk the walk ... it’s not that McCain is so much higher than Obama, it’s just that for right now, he’s the better choice.”

But according to Babcock, “Obama understands the problems we face at this time in American history ... It’s a turning point, and he’s very intelligent. Above all, he’s pragmatic and more willing to look for a solution above ideology ... If he saw a good solution, but it didn’t fit in with liberal thought, he wouldn’t hesitate to listen to those advising him.

“Above all,” he added, “I think he’ll bring competency to the White House, which is something that has been lacking for at least eight years ... and some would argue more.”

Rominger, on the other hand, agreed with McKay.

“I voted for McCain because he’s more conservative and is for the Republican Party,” he said. 

Rominger also thinks Obama’s “Time for a Change” slogan is the wrong approach.

“It might backfire, ...” he said. “A lot of things Obama is trying to do like redistribute the wealth or create universal health care — this is the wrong time to do that.”

Like Rominger, Page voted for McCain because the candidate is conservative and because she, too, believes Obama wants to make too many changes at one time.

“The country isn’t ready for it, ...” she said. “With Obama, it will be the fall of the Roman Empire all over again. ... This country moves slowly and to do 180-degree turn is madness.”

Urbin, however, supported Obama.

“The middle class is the largest class in the United States, and Obama stands for the middle class,” he said. “He came from the middle class, and he knows what’s hard on the middle class.

“Unlike McCain’s policies,” she added, “Obama’s will help those on the lower end of the scale build from the ground up. ... He’ll help the American people who need help instead of those who don’t ... And, he stands for fairness, equality and peace.”

But in no way can Monday’s mock election serve as an accurate indicator of what’s to come Nov. 4, according to Rominger. First, there’s the maturity level of the younger students, he said.

“There’s a need to vote however your friends are voting ... because it’s all about fitting in those first couple of years of high school,” he said.

Secondly, he said, younger students aren’t necessarily going to look up the various issues.

“They’re going to get the majority of their political insight from school assignments and/or through advertisements and commercials,” he said.

And thirdly, there’s another aspect of the maturity level to consider, Rominger said.

“Your values change as you grow older,” he said, “and you realize where you really stand ...”

Holding a mock election is nothing new at LHS, according to government teacher and student council co-sponsor Kasia Minnick. She said individual teachers have held elections in their classrooms for years. What’s different about this year is that the election was expanded to include the entire student body.

“I consider the right to vote as the most basic and yet the most important right of being a citizen in a democratic nation, which is a concept I try to stress with classroom students,” Minnick said. “By holding this election in school, I hope it sends the message that the right to vote is very important and needs to be taken seriously.”

She said students needed to learn about the issues. Page agreed.

“Why wouldn’t you want to vote?” she said. “You have the right to choose how to shape the country.”

Urbin noted that the United States was one of the few countries where citizens had the right to vote.

“The fact that we do have that right should be enough motivation to vote because most countries have no options,” she said. “They have what the government says they’re going to have.

“But Americans can say, ‘No, we don’t like what’s happening; we want to make a change.’ The government isn’t making our lives for us. They don’t tell us what to say or read or wear.”

Not voting, she said, would be a rejection of what the nation’s founders fought for.

“We’re saying we don’t care about our privileges,” she said. “We’re saying we don’t care people are suffering. Not voting is like a slap in the face to people in other countries who do care but can’t do anything about it.”