Clinton, Locke, Nethercutt Win Election (At EV High)

President Clinton beat Bob Dole. Bear baiting was made illegal. And Indian gambling got the green light.

Election Day was Wednesday at East Valley High School. So on Thursday morning, Richard King and his students pored over the results of the students’ mock vote.

King, current world affairs teacher, threw question after question at his second-period class.

“How many of the people in school, do you think, understood what they were voting on? Especially the initiatives? Not everyone, the students agreed.

“I saw a Dole-Kemp poster that said Democrats,” said Lescia Myers.

“How many people, do you suppose, did one of these?” King asked, mimicking someone unthinkingly checking box after box on a ballot. Yup, it happened, the seniors verified.

“Showing up for an election you don’t know anything about is kind of like showing up for a test you don’t know anything about,” King said.

King and his four classes have spent the better part of the school year on the election and related issues. They campaigned, held rallies, designed absentee ballots and managed to corral 1,246 voters - students and teachers.

So King’s 120 students, well-informed on the issues, he proposed, represent what’s probably close to reality: 10 percent of voters who are informed.

King sent the school’s results in to CNN’s national student mock elections. Several million students, kindergarten through high school, participated. Clinton was elected with 55 percent of the vote; Dole captured 32 percent; and Ross Perot had 10 percent. The percentages changed some at East Valley, where Clinton won 45 percent, Dole 29 percent, and Perot 17 percent.

At East Valley, each classroom became a state, so the election could include electoral votes. Band class was California, because with 49 kids it’s the largest class in school.

When five classes turned in tie votes for the presidential race, King used the teacher’s vote to break the tie.

“But I didn’t tell them. I just said ‘What’s your vote?”’ King said. Four of the five voted for Clinton.

“Ooow,” grimaced student Ben Winters.

Some students skewered registered voters who don’t bother to vote.

“It takes effort to show up,” Winters said.

“It’s laziness,” said student Sally Wulf.

King asked the class if they were prepared for their assignments.

“Fifty percent of registered voters make a conscious decision not to vote,” King said.

But the toughest issue the class took on had to do with Clinton’s 45 percent of the vote.

“How does it make you feel to have our president elected with less than 50 percent of the vote?” King asked.

With 10 candidates on the ballot for the presidential race, and a well-to-do candidate like Ross Perot capturing 17 percent of the East Valley vote, students concluded that presidential races might often be won by less than 50 percent of the vote.

So, what’s more important to the country - the right to have alternative candidates for president on the ballot, or having a president win by a dominant voice?

“I think right now the freedom is more important,” King said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ELECTION RESULTS Here are results of some races in which East Valley High School students and teachers cast ballots this week:

President Clinton/Gore: 539 Dole/Kemp: 344 Perot/Choate: 201

Governor Gary Locke: 570 Ellen Craswell: 557

Congress George Nethercutt: 734 Judy Olson: 512

State senator, 4th District George Orr: 606 Bob McCaslin: 562.

State representative, 4th District Larry Crouse: 921. Frank Galizia: 416.

Initiative 655 Making the use of bait, dogs in hunting bears illegal Yes: 781 No: 419

Initiative 671 Indian gambling Yes: 860 No: 357

Initiative 173 School vouchers Yes: 611 No: 601

Initiative 177 Charter schools No: 744 Yes: 475

(Initiatives need only a simple majority to pass.)