October 20, 2004

AND THEY MADE THE BETTER CALL IN THE TWO THEY MISSED (via Rick Turley):

Scholastic Election Poll Has Mirrored Outcome of Every General Election Except Two Since 1940 (PRNewswire, 10/20/04)

Scholastic, the global children's publishing and media company, today announced the results of the 2004 Scholastic Election Poll, an educational activity that gives children too young to go to the polls themselves the opportunity to participate in the political process. More than half a million students in first through eighth grades from across the country participated in the poll, choosing George W. Bush as the next President of the United States.

Since 1940, Scholastic Classroom Magazines have given students the
opportunity to cast their vote for president in the Scholastic Election Poll
(online voting was added in 2000). In every election, but two, the outcome of
the Scholastic Election Poll mirrored the outcome of the general election.

The exceptions were in 1948 when students chose Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S. Truman and in 1960 when more students voted for Richard M. Nixon than John F. Kennedy. In 2000, student voters chose George W. Bush, mirroring the
Electoral College result but not the result of the popular vote.

In the 2004 Scholastic Election Poll, George W. Bush received 52 percent
of the votes and the Democratic contender, John F. Kerry, received 47 percent.
Rounding out the vote, 1 percent of students voted for other candidates.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 20, 2004 1:04 PM
Comments

52-47 is pretty close to my prediction. Then again these kids are probably smarter than me by now as my brain is filled with stuff like mortgage payments, band/team schedules, and programming the VCR.

Posted by: AWW at October 20, 2004 1:09 PM

If Republicans have more kids than Democrats, and Dems win the singles vote, and kids mirror their parents, then this looks like an awfully slim margin for Bush. I'm going to stay nervous.

Posted by: pj at October 20, 2004 1:19 PM

Note that Orrin doesn't cite the part about NH kids going for Kerry in a landslide!

Posted by: Rick T. at October 20, 2004 1:49 PM

And hey, speaking of foolish votes of my youth, I voted for John Anderson in the Scholastic Poll in 1980! I was in the 2nd grade.

Posted by: Governor Breck at October 20, 2004 2:19 PM

The rest of my family couldn't give the square root of zero about politics--it is scarcely a source of conversation around the house.

Echoing an earlier, similar, article about the gender gap, my wife will vote Bush because Kerry just flat creeps her out.

Something similar must be going on with my kids (10 & 11). They, without prompting, find Kerry, and I guote, "yucky."

Posted by: Jeff Guinn at October 20, 2004 3:24 PM

I note that the Left is, completely predictably, ignoring this poll and crowing about the Nickelodeon poll - an online poll, and you know how reliable _those_ are - which shows Kerry winning. The claim is made that that poll has correctly predicted the winners of the last 4 elections. One problem, though; there wasn't even a Web in 1988, much less a Nickelodeon website.

Posted by: Joe at October 20, 2004 8:27 PM

But ees Party Line, Comrade!

Posted by: Ken at October 20, 2004 8:29 PM
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