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Friday, October 29, 2010

Politics If the Children Are Our Future, Then Rossi Will Win This Election

Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 2:24 PM

From Secretary of State Sam Reed:

Friday’s final results for this year’s Washington State Mock Election show that students favored Republican Dino Rossi over Democratic incumbent Patty Murray in the closely watched race for U.S. Senate.

Rossi defeated Murray 52.84 percent to 47.16 percent in the Mock Election.

More than 15,400 K-12 student and homeschooled voters throughout Washington participated in the Mock Election, a strong turnout for a midterm election. The Mock Election, which began Monday and ended Friday at 1 p.m., has been hosted online by the Office of Secretary of State since 2004.

In other Mock Election news: The students of Washington State voted to approve I-1098 (the tax on high-income earners), I-1107 (which repeals taxes on candy and soda), and R-52 (funding for schools). In other words: They like Rossi, who wants to cut taxes for the wealthy, but they also want to tax the wealthy, and meanwhile they also want to repeal taxes on delicious things like candy and soda—oh, and more money for our schools, please.

A theory: Rossi's decision to advertise on Glee is paying big dividends in at least one demographic.

Comments (13) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

kids are dumb. some of them can't even read or do arithmetic. that's why they don't get to vote.

Posted by Max Solomon on October 29, 2010 at 2:38 PM

@ "A theory: Rossi's decision to advertise on Glee is paying big dividends in at least one demographic."

While I didn't do an exhaustive examination, it looks like this might be more simply explained by their sample not matching well to the electorate geographically. In short, while the older kids are less likely to simply parrot, however imperfectly, their parents opinions, it does appear that red and purple regions are overrepresented.

Posted by Long Nate Silver on October 29, 2010 at 2:39 PM

I get why kids don't get to vote. I just wish the same exact valid concerns didn't apply to the rest of us...

Posted by OuterCow on October 29, 2010 at 3:09 PM

Daddy is more fun than Mommy. And Dino = dinosaurs! Patty = cow pies!

Posted by Fox in Socks on October 29, 2010 at 3:21 PM

Apparently we are not having enough mandatory abortions in the state.

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on October 29, 2010 at 3:48 PM

Kids eat paint with lead in it.

And take candy with razor blades from strangers.

Which is why we don't let them vote.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on October 29, 2010 at 3:51 PM

i was a limbaugh republican in 7th grade. also played the drums and wanted to be lars ulrich and darryl strawbery.

Posted by aardvark on October 29, 2010 at 3:56 PM

Dare I suggest that, because Republicans have more children, and children tend to do what their parents do, that the kids in Washington state will always be more Republican than Democrat? Once the children grow up, they'll see that their parents are full of shit, move to Seattle and start voting for Democrats. That's where pretty much everyone who's in Seattle right now came from originally.

Posted by Judah

on October 29, 2010 at 4:49 PM

Kids voted to repeal tax on candy? That's a shocker.

Posted by Free Lunch on October 29, 2010 at 5:32 PM

I stopped reading after "homeschooled."

Posted by threnody on October 29, 2010 at 10:34 PM

Kids mostly favor the candidates their parents favor. Parents are more likely to be Republicans than nonparents, because being a parent makes you more paranoid and more easily scared.

I remember when I was a kid, a kid's magazine I read polled its readers: Bill Clinton or Bob Dole? Dole won by a slim margin. We all know how the adults voted that year...

Posted by I have always been... east coaster on October 29, 2010 at 11:42 PM

My elementary school had a mock vote for the kids during the Bush/Clinton/Dole election and Clinton won in our school. I don't remember who I voted for as I just punched in one of the holes without looking. I just wanted to be a little kid and had no care for the outcome of our fake voting.

Posted by Simone on October 30, 2010 at 9:34 AM