Students test-drive civics in mock election

• By STEVEN WARD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 23, 2008 - Page: 4A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Inside the halls of the Old State Capitol on Wednesday, high school students from Arlington Preparatory Academy cast their votes for U.S. president.

Although the Baton Rouge students are not old enough to vote, their choice will be counted as part of a Louisiana Secretary of State and Cox Communications mock election for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The statewide results of the mock election will be released later this month.

While the 14 Baton Rouge students were inside deciding on the nation’s new leader, the C-SPAN Campaign 2008 Bus sat parked on North Boulevard.

The bus, on a nationwide “Road to the White House” tour, stopped in Baton Rouge  on Wednesday morning to allow both students and adults to view the 45-foot mobile production studio and to learn about the cable channel’s coverage of politics.

Back inside, Nathan Williams, 16, finished voting on a small laptop computer.

“It made me feel good. I feel like it gave me some experience for the time when I’m old enough to vote,” Williams said.

Williams said he voted for Democratic candidate, Barack Obama.

“(Obama) is very good on the issues and he wants to make this a better place for Americans. He can fix the problems we have to deal with so we won’t have to worry about them,” Williams said.

David Smith, 17, said he was surprised students had an opportunity to vote in the presidential election.

“It makes you feel like you are part of something special and doing something for your country,” Smith said.

Smith, who said voting is important and something no adult should ever take for granted, said he voted for Republican candidate John McCain.

“Everyone on the school bus on the way here was talking about how they were voting for Obama. But actually, I voted for McCain because I looked at what both of them said about health care and taxes,” Smith said.