Article Photos

Article Links

» Studies Weekly national elementary school election

BLOOMINGDALE - As Bloomingdale Elementary School goes, so goes the nation?

If so, then the nation could be in for a quick result Tuesday as the presidential ballots are tallied.

First- through fifth-graders at both Bloomingdale and Petrova elementary schools elected Democrat Barack Obama as their president-elect, and according to Bloomingdale fifth-grade teacher Sue Abbott-Jones, in her 21 years of teaching there, the students have accurately predicted the past five presidential elections.

The Monday election was decided by a landslide with Obama getting 314 votes against his Republican opponent John McCain's 127 votes. Populist Party candidate Ralph Nader garnered only two votes from Bloomingdale Elementary. (Nader wasn't on the ballot at Petrova).

"He said he would cut taxes, and for me, that means my parents will give me more money on pay day," Matthew Loso, 9, a fourth-grader at Bloomingdale, said of Obama.

Caleb Alford, 10, a fifth-grader at Petrova, said he voted for Obama "because he wanted the war to end and he believed in health insurance. He also believes in a lot of education."

Overall, students said they were excited to feel like they were a part of the election process.

"I feel good because I got to vote for the person that I wanted," said Arianna Walton, 10, who also voted for Obama.

"This was pretty cool," said Obama supporter and Petrova fifth-grader Michael Cross, 11. "I think he'll make a strong leader."

Nine-year-old Brittany Shumway, a fourth-grader at Bloomingdale, was among the 66-student minority there that cast a ballot for McCain.

"I voted for him because it's a Republican and because of my parents," she said.

Elsa Evans-Kummer, who has spent the past several weeks studying the election in Abbott-Jones' class, agreed that her family played a big part in her choice.

"It was because some of the things I hear my family talk about like gas prices and how they're going to help with that," Evans-Kummer said of why she voted for Obama. "For me, if he wins, I think that means more Christmas presents; and so many people won't be blaming the problems in economy, because he said he is going to help with that."

Mary Beth Preall, Petrova fifth-grade teacher and kindergarten through sixth-grade social studies department chair, said the students voted in a nationwide online election as well as casting their paper ballots.

"What a great introduction to technology," Preall said, "because when they vote, it will probably all be on a computer."

Preall said she "really encouraged the students to speak their mind."

"I said, 'It's their vote, and it's their mind to vote with,'" Preall said.

According to the Web site www.studiesweekly.com, Obama dominated the nationwide kindergarten through sixth grade vote as well, in which more than four million students voted in all 50 states. As of 4 p.m. on Monday, Obama was the projected winner in 40 states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Virginia, winning each state by the thousands.

In the national student-election, McCain secured only Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming - equal to 55 electoral votes.

Despite predictions of a long and tedious Election Day, if the predictions of the 12 and unders of the country proves true, the nation may have a new leader chosen before their bedtime Tuesday night.

Contact Emily Hunkler at 891-2600 ext. 24 or ehunkler@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.