Local & State Headlines

Kids vote on 'Super Monday'

• Learning the foundation of civic duty early, some of Dougherty County's youngest students cast their ballots in a system-wide U.S. presidential primary.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — Elementary students within the Dougherty County School System filled in the gap between Super Bowl Sunday and Super Tuesday with a mock election on what they’ve dubbed “Super Monday.”

During their homeroom periods, 3,173 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders took to makeshift polling booths and with their No. 2 pencils in hand, circled in their choice for president on Scantron sheets normally reserved for tests. Just after 8:30 a.m., students went off to their first class, each proudly wearing an official Georgia voter sticker.

The results were overwhelmingly pro-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, who with 2,182 votes received 69 percent of the overall support. He was followed by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who took 18 percent, or 557 votes. Republicans Gov. Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee each received 4 percent of the vote.

Unlike the results of the students’ mock election, poll figures Monday showed Obama and Clinton in a dead heat as they headed into today’s Democratic primary.

At Dougherty Comprehensive High School, a voter registration drive netted 65 individuals who now have the option of making an impact on the nation’s future.

For weeks, students in the system’s 16 elementary schools learned about the history of voting in America, about the qualifications for president, the electoral college, about the issues facing the country and the candidates who say they can solve them.

“We have been reading in the newspaper and keeping up with the elections,” said 11- year-old Jordan Denson of Lincoln Elementary Magnet School.

“We watched clips of how to vote,” chimed in Lincoln’s James Robinson, 10, a fifth- grader who is partial to Obama, an Illinois Democrat.

“We know that it won’t count, but it makes you feel ... (what) it’ll be like when (we’re 18),” said Jordan, a fifth- grader who on Monday cast a ballot for Clinton.

For fifth-grade social studies teacher and Super Monday coordinator Shirley Barnes, the event offered students the opportunity to learn about the nation’s democratic process and to become engaged on issues that have a local, national and international impact.

“It makes them good citizens,” said third-grade social studies teacher Heather Snow.

“They had been asking me, ‘When are we going to vote?’ ” said Lincoln’s Barnes, who co- organized Super Monday with teacher Robert Bowman of Jackson Heights Elementary School, of students’ excitement over the elections.

Ten-year-olds Lorna Chitty and Donovan Walley, both in the fourth-grade, said they didn’t know how much work goes into getting elected — from raising campaign funds to the many primary elections.

Of voting, Lorna, who “likes making decisions” and hopes one day to be president, said, “If you don’t vote, don’t complain about it.”

Lorna said she sides with the views of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who garnered 2 percent of the student vote.

Fourth-graders at Lincoln are no strangers to taking a stand.

“They like to make a difference,” said fourth-grade social studies teacher Traseka Pickett. She said that after learning that Christopher Columbus did not discover America, the young pupils took it upon themselves to hold an election in which the most deserving candidate would instead be celebrated on the second Monday of October. The students chose Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian merchant and explorer for whom America is named.

For third-grader Jamya Peters, Super Monday was just practice for Super Tuesday — today — when she heads to the official polling booth with her mother.

At school, the 8-year-old voted for Obama because “of his political tone, education and lower health care prices.” She added, “He’s very, very, very important.”

Jamya, who knows she can’t vote in today’s official primaries, said she has been watching the televised debates and learning at school and at home in preparation for the school system’s mock election.

“It’s important to vote because if something is going on in the world that is wrong,” she said rather confidently, “you can stand up and make it right.”

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