Homer High was one of two schools in the state that contributed to a nationwide project organized every four years by teachers at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts.
A nationwide mock election was held Oct. 28, and 100 schools two from each state picked Sen. John Kerry as the next president. Patti Jay, a social studies teacher at the high school, said Tuesday that Homer was asked to participate after another school in Alaska had to drop out of the project last month.
"We had covered every one of those issues in the classroom this year," Jay said. "We had discussed ANWR drilling at length. We had discussed gay marriage at length. Current events are embedded in the social studies curriculum."
The voting took place during English classes during the day, and almost 300 students chose to participate, Jay said.
"I'm impressed with how informed the students were on the issues," she said. "I think they were eager to express their opinions. I think they like to feel involved in the process."
The project, called Voting Opportunities for Teenagers in Every State or VOTES asks two schools from each state to participate during every presidential election season. Prior to this year's mock election, participating students had picked the winner of every presidential election since 1998.
This year, Alaska's mock electoral votes went to Bush no big surprise, although the voting, conducted at Homer and Haines high schools, was close. Bush outpolled Kerry by a vote of 185 to 178 in Alaska, but Homer students on their own voted for Kerry by a margin of 149 to 147.
Nationwide, approximately 53,000 students chose Kerry over President George W. Bush by a margin of 326 electoral votes to 212. Ralph Nader collected just over 4 percent of the students' vote.
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