Election Day 2008!

Happy Birthday Cole!
Happy Election Day!

Today is an historic day. We are all a part of a time that will be remembered for a long while. The best part is that we all get to watch history happen. When we wake up tomorrow we will more than likely have either our first African American president, or our first woman vice president since Geraldine Ferraro.

We had a wonderful discussion today about the process of voting, what the ballots look like, how long it takes to vote, etc. The kids were full of questions for me. I even had to look up information on the Internet to find the answers. We talked quite a bit about the Electoral College, and what electoral votes mean. We learned that there are 538 electoral votes (the total comes from the number of US Senators and Representatives, plus three votes from the District of Columbia) and the magic number to win the presidency is 270 votes. Minnesota has a total of 10 electoral votes. We also learned about swing states, and why presidential candidates choose certain states to heavily campaign in. It was also interesting to hear the kids' thoughts on the political advertising that occurs on the radio and television. All on their own, they talked about the commercials being negative and hurtful, and that they hoped people would understand that many things we see candidates doing are taken out of context. In the next 8 years I know that our country is going to be in great hands--the hands of the intelligent, thoughtful students I see everyday in my room.

We had a mock election in our room using sample ballots. It will be interesting to compare these results with the rest of Minnesota. Here are our classroom results:

President:
Obama/Biden: 7 votes
McCain/Palin: 7 votes
no other candidates listed received any votes

US Senate:
Coleman: 10
Franken: 4
no other candidates listed received any votes

US House of Representatives:
Bachman: 9
Tinklenberg: 4
Anderson (Independent Party): 1

On a humorous note, Mr. Scott and I both received "write ins" for the District Judge Seat 43 position from a few students. We both "accept" your write in:-)

Constitutional Amendment: Clean Water, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage and Natural Areas

Yes: 8
No: 6

Before students voted on this issue, they listened to a newspaper article that clearly explained both "yea" and "nay" viewpoints on the issue.


Decision Dollars will be offered tomorrow for those who can tell me who won the presidential, Senate and House race, and whether or not the wildlife amendment passed.

Enjoy this historic night:-)