Thousands of Virginia students took their first steps toward political activism yesterday, as presidential hopeful and Texas Gov. George W. Bush won the Youth Leadership Initiative's online Mock Republican Presidential Primary.
Bush garnered 49.8 percent of the vote, while John McCain came in second with 38.34 percent. Alan L. Keyes was third with 10.07 percent, Steve Forbes was fourth with 1.02 percent and Gary Bauer finished fifth with .78 percent.
All five Republican candidates who qualified for the Virginia Republican primary ballot were included on the YLI's mock ballot.
YLI Director Ken Stroupe said it was "purely coincidental" that the results were in line with national opinion.
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"It is interesting that the results basically mirror every poll to this point," Stroupe said. "We make no attempt to make a scientific random sample."
The election program was designed to educate students in grades six through 12 about the political process.
More than 1600 students in 17 middle schools and high schools throughout Virginia participated in the election.
Students were able to access the online ballot between Friday morning and yesterday afternoon.
In order for each student to participate in the election, there were three necessary steps. The schools first registered on the YLI Web site and then interested students registered on the site and were given their own username and password. The designated faculty sponsor at each school had to confirm the registered students were actually enrolled in the school.
Once students voted, their usernames and passwords were removed from the registered voters' list to prevent multiple votes.
In addition to the students who voted online, Stroupe said a few hundred students participated in the election via paper ballots at their schools.
Prior to the primary, schools developed a "whole curriculum designed to get students involved," said Melissa Northern, Center for Governmental Studies event coordinator.
Stroupe said the YLI focuses on educating children so they will continue to be interested in the political system as adults.
"The long-term goal is to curtail the rising level of voter apathy in this country," he said. "If you get young people involved at an early age, hopefully they will continue to be involved as adults."
Larry J. Sabato, Center director and government and foreign affairs professor, said the University once again had sponsored one of the largest Internet elections in history. The YLI's first Internet election, held last October, was the largest online voting event ever with over 5,000 students participating.
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