A daily look at life on the job by TIME's Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

If kids could vote...

...apparently, they would. A lot. For Obama. Check out Time for Kids' election webtravaganza. Here's what I learned on the Electionary:

Ballot initiative (n)
A proposed law or policy that is voted on directly by the public. It is also sometimes called a referendum, proposition, or ballot measure. Ballot initiatives are different in each state and give voters a chance to express themselves on a variety of issues.

Got that? More than 2 million kids voted for president on Nick.com, and the winner was—surprise, surprise—Barack Obama. But not by as huge a margin as you'd expect: he won 51% of the vote.

In another measure of candidate popularity among the Ovaltine set, kids are friending their favorites on Kidzui:

  • 38.7% of kids are friends with Obama
  • 25.7% of kids are friends with McCain
  • 21.5% of kids are friends with Palin
  • 14.4% of kids are friends with Biden

No wonder. Check out their avatars. Palin looks like Mom and McCain and Biden like Grandpa, while Obama looks like that cool kid down the block. Bet the others wish he would redistribute his coolness.

  • Print
  • Comment
Comments (7)
Post a Comment »
  • 1

    Anyone know why McCain is the only one not smiling? (Insert "get off my lawn" joke here...)

  • 2

    My second grader also voted for Obama in her school's mock election and she's been pressuring me to vote Obama for weeks now. If she engages in such blatant electioneering while I'm voting tomorrow (both kids will tag along with me to the voting booth) I'm going to have to report her to the election comission.

    Poor McCain's avatar. He's the only one not smiling. In fact, he looks kind of annoyed. "Hey kids! Get off my virtual lawn!"

    And it looks like the avatars were captured in the middle of doing the electric slide.

  • 3

    And on Facebook, more than 600,000 people signed up for the 'get out the vote' Election Rally on Nov 4th, with 68% for Obama.

  • 4

    Kids can be easily influenced and swayed by the mighty mass media. Luckily they cannot vote, otherwise, voting for the president would have become voting for their favorite media.
    Just think of the proportion of people who have succumbed to the onslaught of the often biased yet obtrusive media.

    Humans are strange and idiosyncratic animals. When you are up, all the praise would be showered on you freely, giving you the credits you never deserve. When you are down, you are no better than a pariah in the eyes of many, and no one would raise the good things you might have done.

    This is the Obama and Bush scenario – nothing but human's cruelty and folly! The world has been the greatest stage of elusive deceptions and blind ignorance; it was, it is and it will continue to be.

  • 5

    prklpr, Everyone knows that virtual reality has a liberal bias.

  • 6

    ...plus Facebook has a large percentage of members under 18, who can't even vote!

Add Your Comment:

You must be logged in to post a comment.
Work In Progress Daily E-mail

Get e-mail updates from TIME's Work In Progress in your inbox and never miss a day.

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
KHAN MOHAMAD, an Afghan farmer who does not support the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and has fled his hometown; many Afghans think Americans should negotiate with the Taliban instead of fighting against them

Stay Connected with TIME.com