Unpredictable: How weather and politics can sometimes “mix it up”

I'm Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder.  On February 5, Super Tuesday, I reported on the campaign trail from Tennessee. 

Reporting can be unpredictable at times. Take early February when tornadoes and Super Tuesday election returns competed for TV news time.

My assignment was to cover Super Tuesday in Tennessee. Super Tuesday was the biggest primary voting day in the 2008 presidential election. Tennessee is one of 22 states that voted on February 5. Scholastic News Kid Reporters were visiting polling places all over the nation interviewing voters and reporting on returns.

I got up extra early that day so I could interview some of the first voters. I was planning to return later in the day just before the polls closed. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out exactly how I thought it would.

At around 4:30 p.m., I heard that serious weather was heading for Nashville. I decided to hit the polls earlier than planned, before closing time. I managed to talk to a few people waiting in line to vote before I had to leave. Once home, I faced a new challenge: tornado warnings!

I needed to finish the article fast, but the election returns wouldn’t be in for hours. The polls weren’t closed and a tornado was heading right for my home in Nashville! At 7 p.m., I turned on the television to find out the results at the polls, but instead all I found was news about the nearby storm. It wouldn’t be long before I would have to get in the basement with my family for safety.

I quickly wrote a story based on early predictions and sent it to my editor before heading down to the basement to spend the night. I woke up to find that although my house was OK, my article wasn’t.  Turns out, those early predictions were wrong! Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won Tennessee despite an early lead in the polls by Arizona Senator John McCain.

The moral of this story is that this election season is completely unpredictable—kind of like tornado season.

Photo: Aaron Broder

Comments

[Madison]

I think that 15 and up are allowed to vote Because that's a responsible age to be in politics.