Kids Voting on GI picks Bush-Cheney by 60 percent

Grand Island Dispatch, November, 2004

Grand Island participants of the Kids Voting program selected the Republican ticket of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney by 60.23 percent in voting on Election Day in sites across the town.

The percentage for John Kerry and John Edwards was 35.64; Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo received 3.23 percent.

Chairwoman Lee Tetkowski said Grand Island was second in the Western New York area in percentage of youngsters who voted.

In other results, the kids chose:

• For Family Court, Deborah Haendiges, Republican, by 52.38 percent to 47.62 percent over Margaret Szczur, the Democrat and eventually winner of the race.
• For state Assembly, 144th District, Grand Island students chose Democrat Sam Hoyt by 55.8 percent over Republican David Penna, at 44.2 percent. Hoyt was the victor in the adult voting, also.
• For state Senate in the 60th District, it was Democrat Byron Brown over Republican Alfred Coppola, by 52.6 percent to 47.4 percent. Brown was re-elected.
• In propositions, the students defeated the ballot question about reinstating the draft, by 77.4 percent to 22.6 percent; they said “no” to entering the war in Iraq, 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent; and they said there should not be a Constitutional Amendment banning same sex marriage, by a margin of 53.4 percent to 46.6 percent.