David Jackson, USA TODAY
2:02PM EDT October 16. 2012 - President Obama has the kids' vote locked up.
Organizers of the Scholastic Student Vote
announced Tuesday that Obama won the poll with 51%, compared to 45% for
Republican Mitt Romney. Four percent voted for other people.
Young
people under the legal voting age of 18 cast their vote online at
www.scholastic.com/vote or by mailing in paper ballots found in
Scholastic classroom magazines. Almost a quarter million (250,000)
students voted from Aug. 15 until the online poll closed on Oct. 10.
Scholastic also reports:
"A
majority of kids in four of five key swing states -- Colorado, Florida,
Nevada and Ohio -- chose Obama. A swing state is a state where neither
candidate has a strong majority in the polls. Romney won Virginia, the
other key swing state, by a small margin. In a close race like this one,
the voting outcomes in these states can ultimately determine who wins
the general election.
"The Scholastic Student Vote may not be
official, but its results have often indicated who eventually wins the
presidential race. Scholastic has conducted the student mock vote during
every presidential election since 1940. The results of the student vote
have mirrored the actual outcome of all but two elections -- 1948, when
kids voted for Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S. Truman, and 1960, when
they selected Richard M. Nixon over John F. Kennedy.
"In addition
to casting their votes for President, students have weighed in on
political topics in other Scholastic online polls. As of October 12,
they said the issues that matter most to them are the economy, health
care, and the war in Afghanistan. Sixty-seven percent said they talk
about the election with their parents at least sometimes. And a whopping
90 percent said they would like to be President someday."
USA TODAY