Kid voters pick McCain, disagree with adults on county races

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Kids in Alexandria School District 206 think a little differently than those whose votes actually counted.

Although students agreed with Douglas County adults about who should be the next president, they voted against the county’s choices in the two county commissioner races.

As part of the “Kid’s Voting Alexandria” program, students in District 206 schools and parochial schools voted on Tuesday.

Although their votes didn’t count toward the official outcome, the choices from students in grades 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 12 were tallied.

In a close race, the students agreed with the bulk of Douglas County and chose John McCain (793 votes) over Barack Obama (715).

Although a recount in the race for U.S. Senate is forthcoming, kid voters handed incumbent Norm Coleman a lopsided victory. He received 823 votes versus 423 for Al Franken and 225 for Dean Barkley.

In the U.S. Congressional race for District 7, students went along with the popular vote and chose incumbent DFLer Collin Peterson (678) over his Republican opponent Glen Menze (394).

The state representative races for both 11A and 11B were a little closer – actually it was a tie in 11B.

Incumbent representative in 11A, Torrey Westrom, received 431 student votes compared to his opponent, Bruce Campbell, who received 154.

Both Mary Ellen Otremba, incumbent state representative for 11B and her challenger, Dave Kircher, received 227 student votes.

Current Alexandria Mayor Dan Ness received more than three and a half times the number of votes his opponent, Virgil Batesole, received. The totals were 578 votes for Ness and 163 for Batesole.

In both county commissioner races, students chose the challengers over the incumbents – it was nearly two-to-one for the District 3 race.

Challenger Jeff Callaghan garnered 438 student votes compared to the District 3 incumbent Bev Bales, who received 240 votes.

The District 1 commissioner race was much closer – challenger Dennis Nagle received 341 votes compared to Jerry Johnson, the incumbent, who received 306 votes.

Tags: kids, voting, mccain, obama, douglas, county, school, district, 206