HAINESVILLE - If it were up to children to pick the president of the United States, he would have been chosen on Nov. 3 instead of Nov. 4.
And Democratic Sen. Barack Obama would have won.
Almost a million children in kindergarten through eighth grade voted for either Republican candidate Sen. John McCain or Obama the day before the actual presidential election took place. The nationwide program was conducted online by Studies Weekly, a publishing agency that uses its publications as alternatives to textbooks.
Nearly 400 of those votes came from students in kindergarten through fourth grade at Prairieview School in Hainesville.
"We spent probably a month preparing for it," third-grade teacher Megan Jansen said. "[It was] projected to be one of the biggest kid elections."
Jansen and fourth-grade teacher Julie Schultz, sponsors of the Prairieview's Student Council, monitored the election process all day long. Members of Student Council stamped each child's voter registration card at the voter registration table and directed them toward computer pods. Students were instructed to cast their vote by clicking on a picture of McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, or a picture of Obama and Sen. Joe Biden.
"One boy walked up to the computer and said, 'This is a lot of pressure,'" Schultz said.
It was the sort of reaction Jansen had hoped her students would have.
"[They're] realizing that they have a responsibility as a citizen," she said. "They're young now, but it's making them aware that they have this right."
The election was not just for the students, however. After they chose their candidate, students received a sticker that said "I voted" - a move that Jansen and Schultz hoped would remind parents to vote the next day.
Even though some students said they weren't sure if their parents had planned to vote, they realized the importance of Election Day.
They have conversations with each other just talking about each candidate, and they go home and talk to their parents about it, too," Schultz said. "It makes them more aware of the bigger picture.
Lyndsey Bassett, a 9-year-old who helped monitor her fellow schoolmates as they voted, said she voted for Obama "because that will make history."
Fourth-grader Heidi Thiel, however, voted for McCain.
"[I voted for] John McCain, because he's older and wiser," she said.
Students were able to see the election process unfold by watching a Smartboard - a large projection of the United States that tallied the votes of students across the country every 10 minutes. Students watched as states like Texas and Hawaii changed from blue to red and back to blue.
In the end, less than a dozen states remained red on the Smartboard, including Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Kentucky, West Virginia, North and South Dakota, and Alaska. Democrats won 477 electoral votes compared to Republicans' 61 votes.
Regardless of the outcome, Jansen said the students, at least for one day, were able to make their voices heard.
"It's an experience they will never forget," she said. "They feel very important."
