Obama wins Scholastic poll of students

David Jackson | USATODAY

President Obama has the kids' vote locked up.

Organizers of the Scholastic Student Vote announced Tuesday that Obama won the poll with 51%, compared to 45% for Republican Mitt Romney. Four percent voted for other people.

Young people under the legal voting age of 18 cast their vote online at www.scholastic.com/vote or by mailing in paper ballots found in Scholastic classroom magazines. Almost a quarter million (250,000) students voted from Aug. 15 until the online poll closed on Oct. 10.

Scholastic also reports:

"A majority of kids in four of five key swing states -- Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Ohio -- chose Obama. A swing state is a state where neither candidate has a strong majority in the polls. Romney won Virginia, the other key swing state, by a small margin. In a close race like this one, the voting outcomes in these states can ultimately determine who wins the general election.

"The Scholastic Student Vote may not be official, but its results have often indicated who eventually wins the presidential race. Scholastic has conducted the student mock vote during every presidential election since 1940. The results of the student vote have mirrored the actual outcome of all but two elections -- 1948, when kids voted for Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S. Truman, and 1960, when they selected Richard M. Nixon over John F. Kennedy.

"In addition to casting their votes for President, students have weighed in on political topics in other Scholastic online polls. As of October 12, they said the issues that matter most to them are the economy, health care, and the war in Afghanistan. Sixty-seven percent said they talk about the election with their parents at least sometimes. And a whopping 90 percent said they would like to be President someday."