When it comes to politics, I'm interested whether kids develop views that are aligned with their parents' views, or whether they rebel and vote their own ways. The message from the 2012 Kids Voting results: the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. At least not in Minnesota!

Below are preliminary results from communities that participated in the Kids Voting USA program on the marriage amendment question, along with the actual adult vote results in their respective counties.

In most cases, the kids' results were within a percentage point or two of the adult votes in their counties. There were exceptions. Kids in Ely voted for the amendment, even though the majority of adults in St. Louis County were against it. Similarly, Prior Lake kids cast mock votes that were different from the real votes in Scott County. (The contradictions held even when comparing the kids' votes with results at the municipality level.)

Even with these outliers, it is interesting to see such uniformity in other areas on such a sensitive political issue!

KIDS VOTE RESULTS Yes No Yes% COUNTY VOTE RESULTS Yes% ACGC 77 38 66.96% Meeker 64.47% Albany 104 98 51.49% Stearns 53.03% Brainerd 377 312 54.72% Crow Wing 59.75% Edina 422 1650 20.37% Hennepin 35.05% Ely 76 39 66.09% St. Louis 44.96% Esko 205 231 47.02% Carlton 51.94% Kelliher 73 70 51.05% Beltrami 51.08% Minneapolis 2752 5935 31.68% Hennepin 35.05% Mounds View 157 267 37.03% Ramsey 36.61% North Branch 86 70 55.13% Chisago 56.85% Prior Lake 825 662 55.48% Scott 48.93% Shakopee 735 842 46.61% Scott 48.93% Sleepy Eye 137 57 70.62% Brown 66.84% St. Paul 2576 4766 35.09% Ramsey 36.61% Upsala 111 50 68.94% Morrison 67.86% Virginia 449 386 53.77% St. Louis 44.96% WEM 150 175 46.15% Le Sueur 57.57% TOTALS 9312 15648