St. Lucie County students back Obama, Biden in mock presidential election

Students get taste of national politics while voting for their student council reps

By James Kirley (Contact)
Thursday, September 18, 2008

FORT PIERCE — The war in Iraq has been looming large in the thoughts of Kayla Fernandez since the Lincoln Park Academy senior watched her boyfriend march off to Army Reserve boot camp this summer and probable deployment in Baghdad next spring.

"I'm scared," Fernandez said. "But I support what we're doing over there and I want a president who will support them."

Fernandez said she cast her vote for Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin in a mock presidential election Tuesday at the school. But most of her classmates voted for Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who won by a 30 percent margin.

Krystal Durham, an LPA senior and Obama supporter, said U.S. leadership is due for a change.

"I think we need more emphasis on education and technology and less on funding an army and sending them across the world," Durham said.

St. Lucie County high school students are being primed for the day they become genuine electors: Fort Pierce Westwood High School students completed voting Wednesday and partial results reported at 6 p.m. had 985 Westwood students choosing Obama over McCain by a 56 percent margin; Port St. Lucie and Treasure Coast high schools will vote today; Fort Pierce Central and St. Lucie West Centennial high schools will vote at a date yet to be decided, said Debra Hall, school voter outreach coordinator with Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker's office.

Hall said the county election office traditionally has assisted in student council elections at local high schools, but this is the first time a presidential ticket has been added to those ballots. Students used touch-screen voting machines that will be available to handicapped voters Nov. 4 — other county electors use paper ballots.

The election office registers 18-year-olds at local high schools and promotes pre- registration of 16- and 17-year-olds. That's how Fernandez, who turns 18 in October, will be ready to cast her first authentic ballot Nov. 4.

Rick Gray, chairman of LPA's social studies department, organized Wednesday's school vote. He is Fernandez's teacher and father of an Air Force captain.

"She comes into class every day with her eyes puffy. She says, 'Mr. Gray, you don't know....'

"I say, 'Yes I do. My blood is going over there — or could," he said.

The county's youngest voters may be at Fort Pierce Magnet School of the Arts, where kindergarten through eighth-grade students will cast presidential ballots today.

"It's all over the TV," Assistant Principal Olivia Watkins said. "They see the yard signs and hear the conversations.

"Let's let them have the opportunity to say, 'I voted!'"

WHO WON?

LINCOLN PARK ACADEMY:

John McCain/Sarah Palin: 546 votes (35 percent)

Barack Obama/Joe Biden: 1,025 votes (65 percent)

FORT PIERCE WESTWOOD HIGH SCHOOL*

John McCain/Sarah Palin: 217 votes (22 percent)

Barack Obama/Joe Biden: 768 (78 percent)

* Partial results do not include voting by Marine Oceanographic Academy students