Obama Wins YLI National Mock Election
October 31, 2008

Over Three Million Votes Cast by Students Nationwide
Economy Ranked as Student Voters' Most Important Issue

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va - Grade school students nationwide went to the "polls" over the last two weeks casting more than three million votes in the Youth Leadership Initiative's 2008 Mock Election, the largest online, student-only, mock election in American history. Using high-tech "cyber-ballots" that were tailored to each student's home voting location, a record number of online votes had been cast by the time the polls closed at 5:00 PM Thursday, October 30, 2008 with Senator Barack Obama winning 60% to Senator John McCain's 36% of the votes for President. The remaining votes for President were split among Independent and other Third-Party candidates which varied based on each state's ballot.

A strong plurality of students (nearly 40%) selected the economy as the most important issue in deciding whom to support in the mock election. In total, more than one million students from all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Department of Defense schools abroad voted in the 2008 Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) Mock Election breaking all previous records for online voting in any YLI Mock Election.

The Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) is the signature education program of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. The online balloting process allows participating YLI teachers to customize the electronic ballots to match those of their students' home voting locations.

Many teachers of primary grades included only the Presidential race on student ballots while high school teachers also often added state races, state referenda and even local races to their ballots.

"America's students have spoken with a loud voice and made history in the process," said Meg Heubeck, YLI Director of Instruction. "The entire staff of the Youth Leadership Initiative wishes to thank all of the participating students for voting in this year's mock election and we're grateful for the tens of thousands of dedicated YLI teachers all across the nation and around the world who share our philosophy that politics is a good thing!"

The YLI Mock Election is an academic exercise. It is not a scientific survey and is not designed to predict the outcome of the general election. The views expressed in the results are those of participating students only, and does not constitute an endorsement of any particular candidate or idea, nor are the results designed to serve as either prediction of, or commentary on the regular general election by either the Youth Leadership Initiative or the University of Virginia Center for Politics.