Polk County High Schoolers 'Nominate' Ron Paul, But 'Re-elect' President Obama

If the presidential election were held last week among 14- to 18-year-olds in Polk County, Barack Obama would get another four years.

And Ron Paul would be the Republican nominee, according to a Polk County mock election held in 11 metro area high schools.

Does this have any relevant or predictive value to the mood of their parental units?

Carl Wiederaender, who manages the program for the Polk County Election Office, said the point of the mock election program is to encourage high school students to vote and help them understand the process.

And although he acknowledged that students' choices often mirror their parents' candidate preferences, all Wiederaender would say before the results were in shortly after 4 p.m. was, "It will be interesting."

The results posted on the Election Office's website showed that Paul would be the Republican nominee with 33 percent of the vote. Romney followed with 22 percent of the vote, and Rick Perry had 20 percent.

Newt Gingrich was not popular with the students, culling only 8 percent of their vote, below Michele Bachmann, who had almost 13 percent of the vote. Rick Santorum trailed with just under 4 percent.

All the mock ballots asked students to vote for one Republican candidate and then paired Obama with each of the Republican candidates in separate ballot questions.

An Obama-Paul race among the students re-elected Obama, but it was close: Obama 52 percent; Paul 48 percent. 

Students in each school also got to vote on five "local" referendum questions on the ballot:

• Should seniors at UHS be allowed a senior lounge? A solid 80 percent said yes.

• Should using your cell phone be banned while driving? Sixty-four percent said yes.

• Should gay marriage be legalized in all states and enforced by the national government? Fifty-nine percent said yes.

• Should safe sex be given more emphasis than abstinence? Sixty-six percent said yes.

• Should fireworks continue to be outlawed in Iowa? Eighty-six percent said no.

Linda Templeman, social studies teacher at Urbandale, said her advanced- placement government students came up with the five questions on the ballot.

Those students also ran the "polling place" outside her classroom. Students voted using real voting booths, authentic ballots and secrecy folders, and they put their ballots into a real counting machine.

"I'm number 300!" exclaimed one student as the machine registered her vote Friday morning. 

"You get the prize!" joked Templeman, before adding "There are no prizes for voting."

Despite the lack of prizes, most students interviewed on Friday thought it was pretty cool to be able to vote, especially seniors, many of whom learned that they could caucus next month, even though they are just 17.

"You can caucus if you will be 18 by the general election," Grant Wierson, a senior "election worker" told Zach Crane, who thought he wasn't old enough to go to the Jan. 3 caucus.

"Oh, well I probably will caucus then," said Crane.

Kaitlin Kimm, 17, and also a senior, is absolutely planning to attend her Republican caucus. "I think it's great," she said of the mock election.

"We're a really political family," she said, so there are lots of discussions about candidates in her household. Who is she supporting?

"I like Newt Gingrich right now. I was supporting Herman Cain, but that didn't work out," said Kimm.

The voting machines were in most of the 11 high schools all week and Wiederaender said the mock election was run just as the county election office runs any election.

"I need you to step away from the booth, please," Urbandale student poll worker Max Dillenburg told a student who was milling too close to the voting stations after voting.

Wierson, student council president, said he's planning to caucus Jan. 3, even though it means  he'll miss some of the Urbandale basketball game.

"It's important," he said. "It's our America tomorrow."