Just as there are red states and blue states, it appears there are red schools and blue schools in Oxford.
Between last week and Monday, schools throughout the district conducted mock elections to see who students would choose to be the next President of the United States.
Overall, Democratic candidate Barack Obama won the mock elections with a combined 1,509 votes to Republican candidate John McCain’s 1,381 votes.
However, not every school elected Obama. There was a definite split among the four elementary schools that voted.
Both Clear Lake and Oxford elementaries supported McCain. The Arizona senator won Clear Lake 245-197 and OES 164-157.
Lakeville and Leonard elementaries went to the Obama camp. The Illinois senator won Lakeville 154-110 and Leonard 70-59.
Obama would be happy to know he carried the high school by beating McCain 458-344.
However, independent candidate Ralph Nader didn’t do too shabby as he walked away with 101 votes.
OHS students who voted were asked what they felt was the most important issue in this election.
Not surprising the Number One response was the economy, the choice of 629 students.
War ranked a distant second with 150 students.
Employment was third with 133 students, followed by government spending (88) and education (25).
Although Obama also beat McCain at the middle school 473-459, he would not be pleased to know he lost in the Electoral College 265-232.
Each of the school’s 44 advisory classes (home room to older folks) represented a different state complete with the corresponding number of electoral votes.
Only states with an ‘all or nothing? policy regarding their electoral votes were chosen. In other words, the candidate who wins the popular vote gets all that of state’s electoral votes.
‘It gets them to understand that it’s really the states that decide the election not necessarily just the majority of the population,? said teacher Carolyn Cregar, who organized the mock election. ‘It really depends on what state you from in terms of how attention you’re going to get.?
Maine and Nebraska were left out because they divide their electoral vote proportionately between the candidates based on how much of the popular vote each received.
Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming were also not included because there weren’t enough advisory classes ? and they were at the end of the alphabet.
Cregar was hoping there would be a situation where one candidate wins the popular vote and the other wins the electoral vote.
‘They’ll see it’s not just the popular vote that determines who wins the presidency,? she said.
In the 2000 election, Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote, but Republican George W. Bush won in the Electoral College and claimed the White House.
Nader only got 22 popular votes at OMS and no electoral votes.
‘Unless the third-party candidate gets a majority of the vote in a class, they don’t get any electoral votes,? Cregar said.
Cregar found it interesting that sixth-graders tended to support McCain while eighth-graders leaned toward Obama.
She speculated that maybe parental influence is stronger on the younger students, while the older ones are becoming more independent.
At the high school level, Cregar’s hypothesis didn’t seem to hold true.
McCain won among freshmen (125-112) and seniors (73-71). Sophomores (127-78) and juniors (131-78) supported Obama.