The Obama "Death" Poll on Facebook

So the Secret Service has discovered that the person who put the "Should Obama be Killed?" poll on Facebook was only a kid, and they've shut the books on the case.

The choices on the poll were "No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care." And the final "Yes if...," to me, implies that the child was simply echoing the sentiments of his parents.

Why would I say this? Because of an experience I had back in 1996 on the Internet. At that time, I had co-founded the first electronic democracy website on the net, Votelink.com, with my friend, Colin Cantwell, and we had been asked to set up a mock election.

Congress-funded, the National Parent-Student Mock Election was hosted by Votelink, and it was linked to the Secretary of State's office in all 50 states. One week before the national elections, high school students across the country voted for president. Students participated in the vote in every state, except two: Texas and Florida.

Prior to voting, the students were asked to debate the choices for president at home with their parents. In the states of Texas and Florida, where George W. Bush and brother Jeb Bush were governors, the voting procedure was different.

We were required to set up a separate voting process for high school students in those two states. In Texas, the students could vote on the same day as the rest of the country, however, Votelink was required to hold onto the vote totals for release on Election Day. In Florida, high school students could only vote on Election Day.

The reason given by state officials for this change was that they didn't want the student vote to influence the general vote on Election Day. The vote, they argued, would show how the students' parents would vote.

And this is why I'm concerned about the poll placed by "only a kid" ... on Facebook.