YES ON 85

Parents’ Right to Know & Child Protection Initiative

1703 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101 // Toll-free (866) 828-8355 // email: Janet@ParentsRight2Know.org

NEWS RELEASE

Nov. 2, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mike Byrne, toll free at (866) 828-8355

Students show surprising support for Proposition 85

Results from the mock student election sponsored by the California Secretary of State continue to trickle in, with final results not expected until Friday at 5 p.m. – but there has been at least one big surprise as the votes are being counted: students have voted yes in large numbers on Proposition 85, the parental notification before abortion measure on the Nov. 7 ballot.

So far, of all the propositions on the ballot, more students have voted on Proposition 85 than on any of the other initiatives. Altogether, 71,359 students had cast votes on Proposition 85 as of 5 p.m. on Oct. 31. At that time, the parental notification measure was clinging to a narrow lead: 50.01% yes, to 49.99% no.

Officials at the Secretary of State’s office said Wednesday that they had originally planned to cut off the counting on Oct. 31, but decided to extend the deadline until Friday “so that a few more schools could get their results in.” Currently, 377 of the 545 schools participating in the mock election have reported and had their votes tallied.

The mock vote was sponsored by the Secretary of State's office and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction “in an effort to better educate our future leaders on the democratic process and to make them aware of the importance of voter participation,” according to the Secretary of State’s website.

The vote was held on October 24 at 545 middle and high schools across California, with 235,547 seventh through twelfth graders eligible to cast ballots. The ballot included the U.S. Senate race, the governor’s race and all 13 state propositions.

With slightly over 69% of all participating schools reporting, Sen. Dianne Feinstein held a 16-point lead over state Sen. Richard Mountjoy, and Democrat Phil Angelides was ahead of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger 34.48% to 32.68%. Students were also rejecting propositions 1B, 87 and 88.

Details of the student vote are available online on the Secretary of State’s website at: www.ss.ca.gov/elections/studentmockelection_06_results.htm. The site contains a county-by-county and school-by-school breakdown of the vote.

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