Thank goodness the voting age is 18.

A trip to a local elementary school reveals that many kids know exactly who they would vote for if they could cast their ballot in this presidential election, but the reasons behind the votes are kind of iffy.
Jimmy Gomez, a second-grader at Fair Street International Baccalaureate World School, said he would definitely vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Why?

“Because he’s so cool,” Jimmy said.

Itzel Trujillo, a fourth-grader at Fair Street, said she’s backing Obama, too. The reason is simple: “He looks nicer,” she said.

And then there’s Joy Nisch, a fifth-grader at Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy. She’s breaking from the pack and is supporting Republican presidential candidate John McCain. And the logic behind her would-be vote?

“Because I’m a Republican,” Joy said.

While the elementary schoolers are at least eight years away from casting their first real ballots, teachers are warming them up for the real thing.

Fair Street students will line up at the school’s mobile computer lab Monday to vote online in a national mock election for kindergarten through sixth grade students. They’ll spend about two minutes in a private computer session, marking either McCain or Obama. They’ll even exit the mock poll with a sticker proclaiming they, too, voted.

On Tuesday, New Holland Core Knowledge Academy students will be off to the  mock polls, as well. Students will participate in a schoolwide mock presidential election, said New Holland Core Knowledge Academy Assistant Principal Janice Young.

Young said the mock election follows the school’s student government elections, which were held Friday.
And at Chestatee Middle School, social studies teacher Chuck Bennett has come up with an innovative way to get students interested in the presidential election — he started a political blog for students. After students researched the presidential candidates, Bennett asked them to blog about which candidate they would vote for and why.

Although the blog is closed to the public, Bennett displayed students’ responses in a hallway of Chestatee Middle School to spur conversation about the election among students.

Tracy Troutman, a third-grade teacher at Fair Street, said she was surprised how much her students did know about the candidates. As part of the third grade lesson titled “Every Vote Counts,” Troutman said she taught students about different types of government and why it’s so important for them to use their voting privilege once they turn 18.

“I think the fact that we’re going to participate as a school in the election for students and they’re actually going to be able to go online and take the time to vote privately, they realize that it’s important because Ms. Troutman would rather be writing sentences,” she said.

When Troutman came to the vocabulary word “candidate” during a recent lesson, she turned to write the word on the chalkboard.

“Several students started chanting Obama, Obama,” she said.

Troutman, an experienced teacher, decided to run with it. She asked them why they supported Obama.

“They said things like because he’s going to bring us more gasoline and because he’s a good family man. And a lot of my Hispanic students said he’s going to get us papers,” Troutman said.

Then some students said they wanted to talk about John McCain. The third-graders said they wanted McCain to win “because he has lots of experience, because he went to war and because he went to church,” Troutman said.

In the classroom, Troutman said it’s not her job to have an opinion. She said she tells students voting is important, it’s a privilege and it’s personal.

“I tell them it’s between me and the voting booth,” she said. “That’s why voting is private — because you’re voting from your head and your heart.”