---------------------- Forwarded by Darron C Giron/HOU/ECT on 11/13/2000 
08:43 AM ---------------------------


Greg Couch
11/10/2000 03:52 PM
To: Darron C Giron/HOU/ECT@ECT, David Lorenz/Corp/Enron@ENRON
cc:  
Subject: Kids Find Contested Ballot to be Child's Play


---------------------- Forwarded by Greg Couch/HOU/ECT on 11/10/2000 03:52 PM 
---------------------------


"Vance, Norman" <NVance@hess.com> on 11/10/2000 03:28:15 PM
To: "Greg Couch (E-mail)" <Greg.Couch@enron.com>
cc:  
Subject: Kids Find Contested Ballot to be Child's Play


Friday, November 10, 2000
IN THE NEWS..."Kids Find Contested Ballot to be Child's Play,"
The Shreveport Times, by Don Walker

"It's a ballot that perplexed Florida voters but was no match for the wits
of first- and fourth-graders at Stockwell Elementary School in Bossier City.


"Disillusioned and upset by the lingering chaos of this week's presidential
election, fourth-grade teacher Lisa Burns pulled a sample of the
controversial Palm Beach County, Fla., ballot off the Internet on Thursday.
She then put her class of 9- and 10-year-olds to the test.  'I gave them a
ballot and had them take a blue marker to vote for Al Gore and a red marker
to vote for George Bush. Then I had them put their name on the bottom of the
ballot and turn it in.'

"Turns out this election was mere child's play. Not one of the 22 students
present in class Thursday was confused by the ballot. Each one was marked
without error.

"Well, if a fourth-grader could do it, how about a first-grader? Down the
hall in Stacey Robinson's class, the ballot was handed out to 6- and
7-year-olds. Robinson used an overhead projector to point out Gore's name,
then asked the class of 24 students to find his bubble on the punch-card
ballot.

"'It wasn't a vote,' Robinson said. 'I just wanted to experiment to see if
they could find the correct bubble.'

"When the ballots were turned in, 19 of the first-graders marked the correct
bubble for Gore, three picked Buchanan's bubble, one picked Bush's and one
marked the bottom bubble for the 'Natural Law' party.

"'If a first-grader can choose the correct bubble, there's no legitimate
claim. Anyone could have done it,' Robinson said. 'A grown adult who took
any time at all could find it.'

"Still, even in a first-grade classroom, vote tabulations were the subject
of protest and controversy. 'I thought we were voting,' Brady McCoy, 6, of
Haughton grumbled after he was told to find and punch the 'Gore' bubble. 'I
wanted to vote for George Bush!'"