Timber Ridge Students Cast Their Ballots for President: PHOTOS

Johnston's youngest voters got a jump on casting their ballots.

While we have a little less than a week until we know if the student voters at Timber Ridge Elementary School are reflective of national voters, one thing is for sure, the students took their duty seriously.

Students at the school headed to the voting booth on Tuesday in the 2012 Iowa Student Mock Election.

President Barack Obama received a second term in the White House after the ballots were tallied on Tuesday. Obama received 260 votes, while Mitt Romney received 198 votes.

Third party candidates Jerry Litzel, Gloria LaRiva and Jill Sein all received 1 vote each. 

The program, endorsed by Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, is a partnership with the Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council and National Student/Parent Mock Election.

Thirty of the school's fifth-graders have been preparing the mock election for nearly two months, said Timber Ridge counselor Jan Maronn.

The students were chosen to run the mock election for their excellence in academic work.

For the past two months they learned the electoral process, how government works, about campaigns and current issues, Maronn said.

Annika Soderlund, fifth grade, said she enjoyed the mock election experience.

"We got to make posters and tell people what we learned about the candidates," she said.

The students split into groups and focused on one candidates' stance on one issue, then helped to inform other students.

When students registered to vote, they had to mark which candidate they supported on what issues to show they were informed voters, Maronn said.

Annika's group focused on Barack Obama's stance on health care, while Grady Degenette's group focused on Obama's stance on education.

"It was fun doing the research with friends," he said. "I got to learn about the candidates and be more aware of who to vote for."

Both Annika and Grady said they were choosing Barack Obama after the research.

"Obama thinks education is really good and he wasn't even lower classes to have a good one," Annika said.

No matter how their classmates and other students choose to vote, both Annika and Grady said they were excited about the chance to host a mock election.

"Our grade is really lucky because we get to do it and next year we won't get to," Grady said while he handed out 'I voted' stickers to students voting.

Polls for the state mock election close on Nov. 1 and results will be posed on the Iowa Secretary of State's website on Nov. 2.