Apparently, kids really like Hillary Clinton–and they want her for president. In Nickelodeon’s 2016 Kids Pick The President “Kids’ Vote,” Clinton beat out Donald Trump with 53% of support from kids who cast ballots. Trump received 36%.
Between October 28 and November 5, a total of 905,928 kids voted online–which is a pretty sizable number. It’s pretty great that the mock election exists at all, because it’s an interactive way for kids to think about world issues and events. According to Nickelodeon, it exists to “amplify kids’ voices and opinions and raise their awareness of the electoral process.”
In addition, Clinton also won the Scholastic Student Vote with 52% of student votes–Scholastic’s presidential election is “an educational activity meant to give students an opportunity to express their opinions about the 2016 presidential election.” The sad thing is, only 153,000 students cast ballots this year–whereas almost a quarter million kids voted in 2012.
Why is this? It’s possible that teachers just don’t want to touch the election in their classrooms this year because of the vulgarity, according to Stephanie Smith, editorial director of Scholastic Newsmagazines:
“We’ve had a couple of teachers write us and say they feel so uncomfortable with the tenor of the election that they just don’t feel they can cover it.”
While this is unfortunate, it’s also understandable–as teachers could lose their jobs for taking a stance. Thankfully, all of this crazy will come to an end tomorrow. Just make sure to vote–because your vote is insanely important.
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Joanna Valente is the former Staff Writer at Kveller. Joanna is the author of Sirs & Madams, The Gods Are Dead, Xenos, and Marys of the Sea, and received an MFA at Sarah Lawrence College. You can follow @joannasaid on Twitter and @joannacvalente on Instagram.
