High school students pick Bush during mock election: Davenport beats Jones in race for local mayor

By WILL STEWART

From the presidency to the mayor’s race, incumbents retained their offices in a mock election conducted at Warren County High School last week.

President George W. Bush squeaked out a narrow victory over Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry, garnering 488 votes to Kerry’s 442. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader came in third with 113 votes, again spoiling the Democrat’s chance for victory.

Democrats won the 4th District U.S. Congressional race, however, as first-term Rep. Lincoln Davis defeated Republican challenger Janice Bowling 504-414.

On the state level, Democratic challenger Edward North’s 451 votes were not enough to defeat first-term state Rep. Judd Matheny, who garnered 578 votes.

Posting the largest number of votes of any candidate on the mock ballot, Mayor Royce Davenport trounced challenger Rickey Jones, 612-370.

As in years past, the high school’s mock election was conducted by advanced placement U.S. Government students in the classes of Darrell Austin. Student Leah Cunningham said every student was given the opportunity to vote as ballots were distributed to each home room.

In all, just over 1,000 of the school’s approximately 1,700 students voted in the mock election, producing a voter participation rate of about 61 percent. When asked to explain the low rate, Cunningham speculated that some students might not have gotten ballots, that others were absent and still others, like many of their adult counterparts, simply didn’t care to vote.

Cunningham, a Republican, said she hopes the results of the mock election will mirror the real election’s results. “I think most students vote like their parents,” she said.

Fellow student and Democrat Josh Taylor, however, said he wasn’t so sure the results will be the same. “I think most people are smarter than kids,” he noted.

Senior Ryan Glenn said he was pleased to have the opportunity to vote for the Democratic nominee.

“I voted for John Kerry for many reasons. The biggest reason was that Kerry is for more separation of church and state. God, or any other greater being, should not be anywhere in the government, especially schools. Kerry is more for civil liberties, while it seems every day Bush is in office we seem to lose a certain sense of freedom.”