The Pearson Foundation this year, as in the past, is sponsoring the “My Voice National Student Mock Election”, in which students of all ages participate in a mock presidential/congressional election. The standards and rules vary widely. In some states, only President Obama and Mitt Romney are placed on the ballot. In some states, the results are not released until actual election day (November 6), but in other states, the results are already being released. Voting took place October 25-November 1, except in some states, the voting deadline has been extended due to Sandy.

Here are results from Kentucky, a state in which only the two major party candidates were listed on the ballot, with no write-in space (the actual Kentucky ballot has five candidates and includes write-in space). Here are results from California, which include all six ballot-listed candidates but do not include write-in space (in the actual election, California still has write-in space on the November ballots for President). Here are results from Montana, which include all three ballot-listed presidential candidates and also permits write-in space. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the Montana link. Chances are, results have already been released from other states. Readers are urged to help find them.

Separate from the Mock Student Election is the mock election conducted for high school students by Channel One News, a network for teen-agers. See onevote.channelone.com for the results, or click here. One Vote national results are: President Obama 50%, Mitt Romney 44%, “other” 6%. It is not clear if the “other” results are available.

Only two candidates are on the ballot for Illinois State House, 10th district, in the west side of Chicago. They are the Democratic nominee, Derrick Smith; and Lance Tyson, an independent candidate whose ballot label is “Tenth District Unity.” Tyson is endorsed by many Illinois Democratic leaders, including Governor Pat Quinn and Secretary of State Jesse White. See this story. The Democratic nominee is embroiled in legal difficulties, although some of the difficulties existed before the March 2012 primary and Smith still won that primary.

Tyson certainly will poll over 5%, and that will cause the “Tenth District Unity Party” to become a qualified party within that legislative district for the 2014 election. It will be entitled to its own primary.

According to this story, an unnamed employee of the Clackamus County, Oregon elections office is being investigated for adding extra “votes” to ballots in which the voter left certain offices blank on their voted ballots. Oregon has all-mail balloting. Apparently the worker, assigned the task of opening up envelopes containing voted ballots, was marking “votes” for Republican nominees, on ballots in which the voter had left a partisan office blank. Thanks to Sal Peralta for the link.