I hate to burst your bubble Gimpy, but here is what is considered the most accurate presidential elections forecast, it's been proven for 65 years now. I guess we'll have to wait till after Nov 2 to see who the CiC is going to be
Now if my beloved Redskins can just pull their heads out of their 4th Points of Contact, maybe we can have a winning season. C'mon Joe, put a boot in their ass!
The students who read Weekly Reader?s magazines have made their preference for President known: they want to send President Bush back to the White House.
The results of this year?s Weekly Reader poll have just been announced, and the winner is President Bush. Hundreds of thousands of students participated, giving the Republican President more than 60% of the votes cast and making him a decisive choice over Democratic Senator John Kerry.
Since 1956, Weekly Reader students in grades 1-12 have correctly picked the president, making the Weekly Reader poll one of the most accurate predictors of presidential outcomes in history.
President Bush was a strong winner in the student poll; the only state Senator Kerry won was Maryland. Senator Kerry was also in a statistical dead heat with President Bush in New York, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C. and Vermont. President Bush won most grades, although Senator Kerry did win among tenth-graders.
This year students caught election fever, with an increase of more than 20% in the number of students participating in the Weekly Reader poll than in any prior year. While there were participants from grades K through 12, third- and fourth-graders were the most enthusiastic voters. More than 57,000 students from each of those two grades voted.
The presidential poll, in which teachers collected their students? votes and forwarded them to an independent polling company to be tabulated, is part of Weekly Reader?s ?Promote the Vote? program, created to teach students about the election process, the issues, the candidates, and how democracy works.
?This program teaches students that voting is a privilege and a responsibility,? said Emily Swenson, President of Weekly Reader. ?Through this authentic experience, we are hoping students will become advocates and lifelong voters. And even though the election may be over in eight days, the learning will continue.?
As part of the Promote the Vote Program, Weekly Reader will also conduct an essay contest called Write Your Own Acceptance Speech. In this contest, students from grades three through 12 will be asked to write the speech they would give if they were going to be inaugurated as President in January. Contest rules will be posted at the Weekly Reader Website (
www.weeklyreader.com) beginning November 8.
To select this year?s presidential poll winner, classrooms across the country submitted ballots, called in results via a toll-free number, or voted online. The results were tabulated by Zogby International, which has been conducting public opinion polls since 1984.
The results by grade:
Kindergarten - 9190 students voted
Bush 6404
Kerry 2702
Other 84
1st Grade - 30,017 students voted
Bush 20,946
Kerry 8550
Other 521
2nd Grade - 56,157 students voted
Bush 40,066
Kerry 15,948
Other 143
3rd Grade - 57,802 students voted
Bush 41,652
Kerry 15,900
Other 250
4th Grade - 57,725 students voted
Bush 36,953
Kerry 19,931
Other 841
5th Grade - 42,269 students voted
Bush 24,166
Kerry 16,960
Other 1143
6th Grade - 21,788 students voted
Bush 12,676
Kerry 8668
Other 444
7th Grade - 10,967 students voted
Bush 5800
Kerry 4536
Other 631
8th Grade - 8457 students voted
Bush 4427
Kerry 3587
Other 443
9th Grade - 2214 students voted
Bush 1238
Kerry 816
Other 160
10th Grade - 2108 students voted
Bush 820
Kerry 1208
Other 80
11th Grade - 1872 students voted
Bush 989
Kerry 800
Other 83
12th Grade - 3732 students voted
Bush 2149
Kerry 1445
Other 138