Nickelodeon Polls Kids

The votes are tallied, and the kids' choice for president is: Barack Obama. Kids Pick the President registered over half a million voters, aged six to fourteen, to participate in the mock election.

Journalist Linda Ellerbee has headed this program for almost twenty-five years. She said, "The purpose of what we do -- in educating kids about the issues over the year, and then holding this mock election for them -- is: democracy's hard! We're the practice field!"

Obama captured sixty-five percent of the kids' vote. On October 15, Nick News aired an interview with President Obama, but Governor Romney declined to appear on the show.

Said Ellerbee, "We went to great lengths and worked very hard to make certain that in the show that aired before the polls opened, that Governor Romney was fairly and equally represented in time." Romney's campaign said he couldn't participate due to time constraints.

The kids also got the chance to rank important social issues surrounding the election. Education sat at the top of a list of eight issues, while same-sex marriage ranked near the bottom.

In the bigger picture, the kids have one big question for political leaders. What they're asking from the President, said Ellerbee, is "What can the federal government do for me?"

In every election, except the contentious vote in 2004, the kids have chosen the correct President. The kids think it's time to give them the real vote.