By Ayako Mie/BERKELEY
Like more than one-third of Americans who have cast an early vote, over 35,000 American middle and high students participated in nationwide mock elections before Election Day. On October 30th, Berkeley High School students, either eligible to vote or not, showed enormous interest in this election.
Berkeley High held a mock election.
The foyer of the school’s Community Theater was packed with students who would rather cast their ballots than eat lunch last Thursday.
“I am definitely excited. This is my first election and hopefully we are going to get the first African American president,” said Ben Marchi-Hilton, an 18-year old Berkeley High senior.
Barack Obama won an 88 percent majority vote over John McCain, who secured only five percent of the votes in the school’s mock election. Support for Obama at Berkeley High was approximately 25 percent higher than the rate national polls project.
Turnout at this year’s mock election at Berkeley High was seven times higher than that of 2002, when only 197 students participated. This year, 1,303 students cast their ballots, according to the League of Women Voters, which administered the mock election.
“This election cycle energized young people especially,” said Bill Chapman, a staff member of the League of Women Voters. Chapman, who has been involved in mock elections for 28 years, said this turnout was remarkable.
Wyn Skeels, who teaches government classes, said that the students are more interested in this election than any he has seen in his 12-year career at Berkeley High. “Barack Obama’s candidacy especially excited the young voters here at the school,” he said.
“I feel good, because we are going to have a right president,” said 18-year old senior, Pascao Dejoie. He said that he was excited to vote this year. “If Obama were not running for president, I would not go to vote,” he said.
Some of the students who are yet to reach voting age are disappointed that they cannot take part in the real election.
“I am mad. For my first vote, I wish I could vote in the biggest election ever, between a black man and McCain with a woman on his side,” said Nick Gomez, a 17-year old senior.
However, it was not only Barack Obama’s charismatic image that brought the record number of students to the mock election. Students who are keenly aware of the community that they live in wanted to be heard by voting on twelve propositions. Skeels said many students have already learned about the propositions in his class and are very “savvy” about them.
“They even know voting for Prop. 8 means against gay marriage,” said Skeels. He could not recall any students who were supportive of Proposition 8, which would amend the state constitution to take away the rights of gays and lesbians to marry.
“There is still racism here…[and] homophobia,” said student Ben March-Hilton, who supports an end to both. “Why is [gay marriage] even an issue in the first place? It is ridiculous to me.” Sixty-seven percent of his classmates joined March-Hinton in voting no. Twenty-eight percent voted for Prop 8.
Barack Obama drew large attention from students at Berkeley High and young voters across the country. According to research conducted by The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, the number of voters under the age of 29 rose from nine percent in the 2000 primaries to 17 percent in this year’s primaries. Obama benefited from staunch support from young constituents. Sixty percent of young voters supported Obama over Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary.
However, the question remains: can the next president sustain the interest and excitement of young voters who will be eligible to vote in the next election but are not eligible to vote this November 4th, like Naomi Fa-Kaji, a 17-year old senior at Berkeley High?
“It is important for high school students to know what is going on, because they are going to be of voting age in a couple of years,” she said after casting her ballot for Barack Obama.
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