Lincoln votes for president in mock election

The voting age in the United States is 18, but young people are still interested in learning about the political process. Even elementary students have taken an interest in the presidential election.

Lincoln Elementary School joined schools across the nation today when it held its own mock presidential election. The students took turns visiting computers where they could vote for either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.

The results from Lincoln will go to a nation-wide database along with all the other elementary students? votes to find out which candidate is most popular in the country?s lunchrooms.

Lincoln principal Dave Hoffman said that elementary students learn about politics and government in their social studies class. For this nation-wide youth vote, the teachers at Lincoln didn?t get into the specifics of each candidate, and instead stressed the importance of voting and civic participation.

All of the participating schools were supposed to vote today. However, Hurricane Sandy has closed many schools on the East Coast, so the voting will remain open through Friday.

The students got the full feel of what it is like to vote. Before they cast their ballot, the students had to fill out a voter registration card, just as adults do in real life. Once they voted, they were given an ?I voted!? sticker to proudly wear around the school.

When the students went to vote, they saw a picture of Obama on one side of the computer screen and a picture of Romney on the other. They voted for their favorite candidate by pressing the key that corresponded to his name.

After voting, the computer counts down the seconds until the next student can vote at that computer. The countdown is a few minutes long. This is done to prevent a single student from tapping the key of his favorite candidate over and over again.

In addition to voting, the students made signs about voting which they hung from their lockers. Some students wrote things like ?Voting rocks? while others made signs pledging their support to one of the candidates.