Pupils’ Choice

From Oxnard and Fillmore to suburban Los Angeles, the citizens filed into the polling place Monday, eager to vote on the issues of the day:

Favorite sports figure. Best rock band. And, yes, the most qualified presidential candidate.

In the semi-privacy of her voting booth--a table at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library--Patty Garcia was having a tough time sorting out her neon pink ballot.

Favorite sports player was easy--the Dodgers’ Mike Piazza. For favorite rock band, she chose Smashing Pumpkins. But that last one was tougher--President Bill Clinton or challenger Bob Dole?

“Can I only vote for one?” she whispered to a nearby teacher.

Even though it was a mock election for public school students--like Patty, 9, of Arminta Street Elementary School in North Hollywood--the participants took their one-day right to vote pretty seriously.

After fiddling with her pen for minutes, Patty finally decided on Clinton: “Because he’s nice and he wants kids to go to school.”

Simi Valley’s Jonathon Gilbert, 12, would not divulge his White House pick, but he would allow that the decision was an important one.

“If I vote for the wrong person, something will happen and it will ruin the way we have the world set up,” confided Jonathon, who attends Abraham Lincoln Elementary School.

At the same polling place, his classmate, Craig Whitney, was of a different mind. “I’m going with Dole,” the 12-year-old declared. “Because he’s a Republican and he’s cool.”

After listening to talks given by Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton and California Secretary of State Bill Jones, Craig had the voting rap down pat.

“You have to be 18--I know that,” he said. “And you, like, vote for a lot of people--congressmen, the president, city council and stuff.”

Eighth-grader Deizely Santana of Oxnard’s Ocean View Junior High disdained mainstream candidates altogether. The 12-year-old said she preferred the Peace and Freedom Party platform--which says immigrants should not be scapegoats for social ills.

Younger students learned about the electoral process through song and video displays during the mock election, which also marked the Reagan library’s fifth birthday. Meanwhile, middle school and high school students talked about the electoral college before drawing the blue curtain shut in their voting booths.

“We wanted them to have a sense of what it looks like to vote,” said Mark A. Hunt, director of the library. “So when they get to be 18, it won’t be hard or scary for them to vote.”

To replicate reality, students carried registration cards and a photo ID, waited as poll workers found their names on a roster and took a ballot into a closed-in booth.

By day’s end, the assembled students deemed Chinese their favorite kind of food. “Friends” and “The X-Files” were the top TV shows. Garfield and blue were the top vote-getters in the comic strip and color categories. And basketball great Michael Jordan was the favored athlete.

To preserve the sanctity of today’s general election, though, the tally of the students’ presidential votes will be kept under wraps until Wednesday.

For some high-schoolers, who vote in school contests, the mock election was kids’ stuff. “I thought it would be more serious,” said Sydia Lopez, 17, a senior at Fillmore High School. “I was hoping we would talk about the propositions, the candidates and their philosophies--not about our favorite colors.”

Woodland Hills middle-schooler Brian Tullio, 12, disagreed. Voting on colors and musical acts was a good thing, he said. “It took off some of the stress.”