Students speak: Bush is their choice
By Julie M. Graham
If it were up to local high school seniors, Texas Gov. George W. Bush would win Tuesday's election for U.S. president, according to a Chronicle survey of 345 teens.
He received 53.5 percent of the 331 votes cast for the nation's highest office in the newspaper's unscientific, informal poll. Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore ended with 84, or 25.4 percent.
Other results from the survey include...more Republicans than Democrats voting for Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
Seniors in contemporary world issues classes at W.F. West, Centralia, Rochester, Toledo, Mossyrock, and Pe Ell high schools participated in the survey, which was administered by school staff between Oct. 18 and 26...
For both the presidential and commissioner questions, the 17- and 18-year-old seniors were asked if they could vote, or already did, who they would vote for. Sixty-one of the 104 (58.7 percent) who had passed their 18th birthday said they were registered to vote...
Nearly 80 percent (274) of all respondents said they intended to vote. Fifty said they would maybe vote and 14 said they would not...
Students did not necessarily vote only for candidates from the party they associated themselves with. In addition to the 139 who described themselves as independents, 42 crossed party lines.
Of the 37 teen-agers who chose Ralph Nader for president, six identified themselves as Republicans and two as Democrats.
Abortion, gun control and education appeared the most frequently among student-listed concerns.
Eighty-six seniors listed abortion as an issue that had their attention. Twenty-two indicated they were pro-life and 19 that they were pro-choice...
Sixty-nine wrote down the issue of gun control. Eighteen said they favored some form of control for guns, while 19 stated they opposed it. Those favoring control wrote of recent violence in schools...
Other issues included taxes, the environment, high gas prices, voting age, legalization of marijuana, the military, society morals, foreign affairs and student rights.
Of the students who knew and indicated their parents' party affiliations, nearly three of every four considered themselves members of the same party