Alaska News

ASD students re-elect Obama in Youth Vote

Anchorage School District students re-elected Barack Obama as president in the district's mock voting exercise Tuesday.

Some 57.1 percent of the 14,230 elementary, middle and high school students participating voted for the incumbent presidential candidate with 36.4 percent casting a ballot for challenger Mitt Romney.

In other races and ballot measures ASD students voted for Republican Don Young over Democrat Sharon Cissna in the race for U.S. Representative (61.5 percent to 25.5 percent) and for a new constitutional convention (52.5 percent to 47.4 percent).

Fifty-one percent of participating students voted yes on a special question asking whether the voting age should be lowered to 16 for local elections.

Youth Vote is meant to encourage students to become engaged citizens, according to ASD spokeswoman Heidi Embley.

Reach Michelle Theriault Boots at mtheriault@adn.com or 257-4344.

By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS

mtheriault@adn.com

Michelle Theriault Boots

Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. She focuses on in-depth stories about the intersection of public policy and Alaskans' lives. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon.

ADVERTISEMENT