After 21 months of campaigning, the results of the 2008 presidential election determined that Senator Barack Obama will be the President of the United States of America come Jan. 20, 2009.

Twenty generations after the first slave ships docked on American shores, our country has finally come to the point where race is no longer a barrier but rather merely a form of identity. Regardless of personal feelings of those who support or oppose Obama it is undeniable that this election, where a candidate was able to transcend discrimination and past prejudices, has become an important part of American history.

“I feel relived, because although McCain is a good senator I’m worried that if our country were to continue to follow far right political ideals that it would be a bad direction especially considering where the country is right now. Obama embodies the hope that people can overcome the obstacles that commonly stand in the way of achieving our goals and dreams,” senior Lauren Graham said.

Even though this election holds deeper meaning than simply who will be America’s next president, much controversy and opposition continues to exist towards Obama.

“No matter what not everyone is going to be happy. Even the popular vote was almost split 50-50. I would of voted republican and I feel that some of the changes Obama plans for this country are not good. He may be able to deal with economic issues he still lacks political experience. He also has a lot of socialistic ideals that are not healthy for our democracy,” senior Alycia Alexander said.

Elections have proven to be quite important to high school students because there are many seniors who are eligible to vote or are soon to be 18. The school’s Young Political Coalition (YPC) held a mock election and AP Statistics Students spent a week polling students.

“YPC is an outlet for politically inclined students who want to learn more or get involved with the community. We are a bipartisan political awareness club and we believe it is essential as Americans to be politically aware of our civil duties (like voting). We held a mock election on campus on Nov. 3 and I think it went really well. We were not sure what to expect but we saw a lot of enthusiasm among students,” president of YPC senior Rebecca Suarez said.

Obama won the most support among students in YPC’s mock election, whose results which were based on popular vote (not electoral votes as in the real election) are as follows: Mckinney received 3 votes, Barr received 3 votes, Nader received 14 votes, McCain received 151 votes and Obama received 163 votes.

AP Statistics teacher Matt Strom’s classes spent a little over a week polling the student population using different sampling methods in order to not only yield the most accurate results but also to demonstrate the difference between receiving accurate versus biased data.

“Strom’s AP Statistics classes surveyed the school of their political opinion to enforce the idea of surveying and to model the Gallup Poll’s results within the Basha High School environment. Our group surveyed with a stratified simple random sample, splitting the school by grade and selecting a group of students from each grade level proportionate to the actual class size. Then we randomly rolled a number generator and selected students based on the results of the generator. This way, there was no bias among our surveyors,” senior Michelle Lee said.

The AP Statistics classes found that surveying students in a stratified simple random manner resulted in the most accurate data, or which most of the results pointed to Obama as the future president.

The student interest in voting can only be considered a good thing and hopefully these students will carry their enthusiasm for politics with them when they are eligible to vote. With this historical election, interest has risen and surely the next presidential election for 2012 will be something to look out for in regards to students in high school.