(Frankfort, KY) Kentucky students see the upcoming election in a different manner than their parents if you compare the results of the 2007 Kentucky Student Mock Election to current public polling. Nearly 10,000 students from 85 schools across the Commonwealth picked the entire Republican slate in the election, sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of State and the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI)
“It is essential that students become acclimated to the democratic process, and there is no better way than for them to participate in the process themselves,” stated Secretary Grayson. “We hope that this will begin a lifelong commitment to voting among these young people.”
This project is an exceptional tool for confronting, and in many cases, reversing the disturbing voting trends in the 18-24 year old demographic. Engaging students with the core principles of democracy fosters an important behavior that many will carry far beyond the classroom.
The unofficial results for the election are:
Governor/Lt. Governor Slate
Ernie Fletcher/Robbie Rudolph (R) – 54.09%
Steven Beshear/Daniel Mongiardo (D) – 45.91%
Secretary of State
C.M. “Trey” Grayson (R) – 55.93%
Bruce Hendrickson (D) – 44.07%
Attorney General
Stan Lee (R) – 54.39%
Jack Conway (D) – 45.61%
Auditor of Public Accounts
Linda Greenwell (R) – 59.29%
Crit Luallen (D) – 40.70%
State Treasurer
Melinda L. Wheeler (R) – 53.47%
L.J. “Todd” Hollenbach (D) – 46.13%
Commissioner of Agriculture
Richie Farmer (R) – 61.41%
David Lynn Williams (D) – 38.59%
This is the final of three such mock elections. The first was held at the campuses of the Governor’s Scholars Program during July in which the candidates had a dead-even tie. The second mock election was held on six college campuses across Kentucky with former Lt. Governor Steve Beshear beating Governor Ernie Fletcher by nearly 3 ½ percentage points. This election, unlike the others, featured all constitutional officer races.
In addition to the mock election, the partnership with YLI allowed teachers, who chose to participate in the mock election, access to YLI’s on-line bank of lesson plans which are aimed at increasing civic literacy. The lesson plans provided on the site were aligned with Kentucky’s academic standards, saving teachers precious development time.
Grayson directs the Civic Literacy Initiative of Kentucky, a multi-year effort that will determine a strategy for enhancing long-term civic engagement and civic literacy within the Commonwealth. As part of that effort, he released a report, Rediscovering Democracy: An Agenda for Action, that calls upon the state to take tangible steps to increase civic literacy. The report, which details four principle recommendations and scores of additional recommendations, was developed from the work of the Kentucky Workgroup on Civic Literacy and the CLIK.
A focus of the report is increased technology in order to further engage students in the political process. Grayson’s office has an international award-winning website with increased online election services so that information is readily available for Kentucky citizens 24 hours-a-day/7 days-a-week. Grayson is also a pioneer in using popular mediums such as Facebook to make the political system more approachable to young people. During the 2006 election cycle, he created a national Facebook group to remind students to register to vote, request absentee ballots, and to turn out to vote on Election Day.
“By involving students in the democratic process, we wish to not only energize young people to vote, but to also remind their family and friends about the importance of voting on November 6, 2007,” said Secretary Grayson.
The entire official results will be available in the near future at www.sos.ky.gov/mockelection once they are sent to the Office of the Secretary of State from YLI. YLI was responsible for the tabulation of results for this election.
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