A delusional coping mechanism?

[meadowlark5]

My 10yr old twins came home from school today telling me that they were told that President Obama hasn't officially been elected. First it was parroted by the spawn of some tea baggers and then the teacher confirmed it And this teacher said Nevada hadn't been called for Obama yet (that was today at school ). And of course Florida still hasn't been called, they were told. So nothing is official This is a really conservative little school. Their mock election on Monday gave Romeny the win with 247 votes to Obama's 93. Fortunately my boys understood last night before they went to bed that Obama had plenty of electoral votes despite what states were still being counted. They're smart little liberals

So is this something being circulated in the wingnutosphere as some way to make them feel hopeful or something? The spawn of the tea baggers has been ruminating for weeks about Romney winning. But today he was still hopeful because it's not "official"?

[drlindaphd]

1. Yes delusional, but more

This is indeed dangerous. Children are being lied to by their teachers. It is official. The adults need to be reported and if they truly believe this they need a mental health exam. They should notbe in a position of power with children.

[meadowlark5]

4. I have been a little concerned about this teacher

My oldest boy had him but it wasn't an election year. This teacher seems very interested in civics and did a lot of civics lessons in class. So with this being an election year he was really concentrating a lot on the process of the election. Which was fine. But then last week he asked the kids who were they voting for so took a head count in class. Which I don't like because of how heavily repub the school is. I don't like putting my little boys in a position of being the minority with the repubs acting the way the have been acting during this campaign. Little kids shouldn't have to deal with that kind of anger.

Then, over last week he sent home a map of the US and wanted the kids to predict who was going to win the swing states. How are 10yr olds supposed to do that? The dolts on tv and news couldn't even do it. So I helped them, and with the exception of Florida, we called them correctly There were 3 other dem kids in class that had the same map.

But since Florida hasn't been called, the president hasn't officially been elected I have been contemplating sending him an email and telling him to keep his "republican hopes alive" privately and not imposing it on my boys.

I don't know if I will. Who knows if my kids would then be treated differently because of it. I just assured my boys, the president will be the president for the next 4 years.

[Tikki]

2. We still get our 3rd grade grandson up at 11:00pm for a...

pit stop every night. When he went to bed at 8:00pm pst he was concerned that our
President Obama hadn't been declared the winner yet.

When we rousted him out of bed he asked sleepily if President Obama had won and when
we said 'Yes' he sighed with relief and smiled on his way back to bed.

Kids Care...it's their future.


The Tikkis

[Ms. Toad]

3. Don't know what the timeline is for other states -

But the vote in Ohio cannot be certified until Nov 17 (and must be certified no later than Nov 27).

So - technically speaking, the teacher is correct. Even the vote tallies which determine the # of electoral votes each candidate receives are not final for 3 more weeks in Ohio (and the date varies by state). Provisional ballots cannot be processed until Nov 17, since anyone casting one without ID has until the close of business on 11/6 to present ID to the board.

Ten is probably a little young to be dealing in the intricacies of final vote tallies and provisional ballots - and it is extremely unlikely that anything significant will change - but as to the first statement the teacher actually is correct (and that doesn't even take into account that it is the electoral college that makes the final determination on 1/6.)

[meadowlark5]

5. But Obama wins the electoral college without Ohio

And this teacher never went into detail. Just said it wasn't official.

I can't say I'm a civics expert so didn't know all of this. I just felt like he should have been a little more descriptive instead of allowing the handful of kids that were happy about the re-election of Barack Obama to feel like it was in jeopardy. And make the tea bag child feel vindicated in his refutation of this presidency. I think tea bag child thinks something will stop the re-election and Romney will win in the end.

[Ms. Toad]

6. No state is final yet (not just Ohio)

Every state has some version of provisional ballots, and some timeline for recounts before the vote is certified. There are mandatory recounts that can shift a state from Obama to Romney or vice versa - and candidates can request recounts even if the race is not within the margin. In Ohio, if the difference is less than .25% there is a mandatory recount.

Provisionals, at least the ones I directly know about, are very high this year. At least in theory, if they all went Romney's way - or a disproportionate number went Romney's way in any close state - the tally could change.

Do I think that is likely? Absolutely not - at least not on a scale that matters. I suspect the provisional ballots are heavily in Obama's favor, and recounts rarely change the outcome. I would have explained that to my daughter at age 10. And if the teacher felt compelled to talk about how the election wasn't final, s/he should also have talked about how unlikely it was that who won would change.

[meadowlark5]

7. Right. It shouldn't have up to me to explain things to them after school

If he felt they were advanced enough to predict who was going to win the 9 swing states, then I think he should assume they were able to understand how and why the election isn't "official". I think it was a bad choice to say it the way he did, making the republican kids feel happy in someway, and the kids that were happy about the re-election, confused and worried that maybe it won't really happen.

I think I'm just a bit hypersensitive to that school. It has been a contentious campaign and some of the ugliest things came to school with these kids. I really didn't appreciate explaining abortion to my 10yr olds because some christian conservative child was telling them "Obama allows babies to be killed". They wanted to know just how does Obama kill babies? So I had to try and explain it to them as generically as I could. That one made me mad. Also being called dumb because they are democrat and being called unpatriotic because they aren't republican. Most of this came from the one tea bag child. I finally told my boys to tell tea bag child to stop talking to them like that or I was going to talk to his mother. And he did stop. But it was just awful some of the things they would come home and tell me that the kids were saying. I think it's horrible parents would say those things in front of 9 and 10yr old kids and think it's perfectly fine.

[Ms. Toad]

8. Sorry you have such a sucky school.

My daughter's was mostly OK, but it did have an abstinence only class in middle school. Fortunately, my daughter was in the hospital they day the hired idiots came in to teach it. I did review the information - and had a nice long talk with the school about distributing inaccurate information. (The course itself was state mandated - but the provider was not - so my goal was to get the provider booted out of a job. Come to think of it, I don't remember that I followed up on that)

[drlindaphd]

9. Romney has conceded. It is indeed over! Obama is new

President. He will serve another four years and there is nothing that will change that. These people need to grow up and move on with their lives.

[Ms. Toad]

10. You are aware that whatever any candidate says has no legal impact, right?

What matters is the certified vote count.

I agree that people living in a fantasy world that the final vote tally will somehow flip need to grow up and move on with their lives. There's not a chance in the world it will.

That said, it is inaccurate to say it is over. If it was over, I would not still be on duty for voter protection tomorrow night, in connection with counting provisional ballots.