Published: Saturday, November 3, 2012 1:03 AM CDT

Barack Obama has won the election.

With about 500 Yankton Middle School (YMS) students voting in a mock election on Friday, Obama narrowly defeated Mitt Romney by just eight votes. Obama received 251 votes, while Romney received 243.

Sixth grade students chose Obama over Romney 97 votes to 85, while seventh graders chose Obama 88 votes to 70. However, eighth graders overwhelmingly supported Mitt Romney 88 votes to Obama’s 66.

Students were given just a taste of what the actual voting process is like during the mock election.

“It’s important to give students an idea of what happens during the election,” said YMS social studies teacher Amy Long.

Students at Yankton School District (YSD) get United States government curriculum during their eighth-grade year, then again as seniors — which means there will be two elections students are a part of, the one next week, then again as seniors in 2016.

“Among young people, voter apathy is a problem so this mock election is a way for students to talk to their parents about voting and the election,” Long said. “We sent home some information and some teachers had an activity where students got online to a Time magazine children’s election website which showed what each candidate and political party stands for.”

She added that when she asks her students about the election, they often simply groan and say they are sick of the commercials.

“We were able to show the students what the ballot looks and tell them that voting is a right we have as citizens,” Long said. “People say it’s not important and that your vote doesn’t count, but when things don’t go well, we complain. If you don’t vote, you are giving those that do vote more power.”

Even though middle school students are a long way from being able to vote, Long said they still think it’s a good idea to go through the process as if they were actually voting.

However, one big difference between the mock election and the actual election is students only voted for the president on Friday.

“We decided not to do any of the local races or questions because that would make the process a lot longer,” Long said. “We’re focusing only on the presidential race, which makes it easier for us to count all the ballots. We decided just to keep it simple.”

Social studies teachers sent home sample ballots with students last week, and had parents sign them to say they talked with their kids about the election, ballot items and the importance of voting.

“When we sent those ballots home, it also encourages parents who are eligible to vote to think about the election,” she said. “As teachers, we shouldn’t influence students’ political beliefs. We try to keep everything non-partisan and just present the facts.”

Long added that getting the election and the voting discussion started with middle school students is important.

“Some students obviously speak to their parents a lot about politics and the election,” she said. “Some have been told what their beliefs should be by their parents. Politics is certainly something that your parents influence their kids about but it’s also important that kids start thinking about voting for the future when they can vote.”

Long said she reviewed the electoral college with her students, and told them that voting is a two-step process, with the popular vote then with the electoral college picking the president.

“We tried to set this up today like it was the regular election. Students showed their student identification, with student council members checking their name off the list,” she said. “We even got to use the actual ballot boxes and students stick their ballot into the box.”

This is a change from the last mock election when students just voted in their homeroom classes by filling out a ballot and returning it to their teacher.

One of the goals of the mock election is for teachers to raise student awareness on the importance of voting.

“Students in middle school are often pretty self-centered and not really aware what is going on in the world around them,” Long said. “It’s important to raise their awareness on voting by telling them they make a bigger difference by voting than by not voting. So we hope students know what’s going on, and even encourage their parents to vote and we hope they will vote in the future when they are eligible.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal