AUBURN – Edward Little senior Andrew Brodsky voted for John Baldacci for governor, Olympia Snowe for U.S. senator, and said ‘no’ to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights referendum to limit spending.

So did the majority of Maine students who participated in a statewide mock election Thursday.

In the mock election held at more than 200 schools, 6:45 p.m. results showed Democratic Gov. Baldacci beat Republican challenger Chandler Woodcock. Baldacci got 38.9 percent of the votes, Woodcock 27.5 percent.

Other gubernatorial candidates got fewer votes. Independent Barbara Merrill got 14.2 percent of the student vote, Green candidate Patricia LaMarche 13 percent, and Phillip Morris NaPier, 6.1 percent.

In the race for U.S. Senate, Snowe trounced challengers Democratic Jean Hay Bright and independent William Slavick. Snowe received 70.8 percent; Bright, 12.5 percent; Slavick, 16.2 percent.

In the Second Congressional District, students overwhelmingly voted for incumbent Democrat Mike Michaud. He received 67.1 percent, Republican challenger Laurence D’Amboise 32.4 percent.

Students said no to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, 59.2 to 40.8 percent.

Baldacci won at Auburn’s Edward Little High School, Dixfield’s Dirigo Middle School and at Jay High School. Woodcock won at St. Dominic Regional Catholic School in Auburn and at Livermore Falls High School.

At Edward Little High School on Thursday, students filing into the cafeteria for lunch were greeted by voting booths and voter registration tables. The voting scene looked authentic, except for the lunch tables.

“If you haven’t voted, you need to vote,” came an announcement over the loud speaker.

Victoria Tanous was collecting voter registrations from students. Brodsky was working with “Ward 1” (senior class) voters.

“It’s important to vote,” Brodsky said. “It’s sad that our national turnout rate is only 50 percent. Auburn tends to be really high, around 80 percent.”

He voted for Baldacci, Snowe and Michaud because “they’ve done a strong job so far.” He mostly voted for Democrats, and is predicting Democrats will take over Congress. “That will be really key. I’m not a Bush fan.”

Moriah Churchill, 17, said she voted for Jean Hay Bright instead of Snowe. “It’s important Congress be Democrat so we can have that liberal voice in the national government to oppose the Bush administration, and all the corruptions,” she said.

Adam Beggs, 17, a senior, voted Republican: Woodcock for governor, Snowe for Congress, D’Amboise for Congress.

“I like a lot of the Republican ideas,” Beggs said. “I’m not sure we should be in Iraq, but we’re already there so we might as well fix it,” he said. “TABOR is good,” Beggs added.

Krissy Liguori, 17, voted for incumbents. She considers herself an independent. She doesn’t go for a political party. “I go with what I think is right.”

Maine’s student mock election has been held since 1990, said Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap. It’s not intended to be a poll, “although the candidates are pretty interested” in results, he said.

How students vote is often how Maine votes, Dunlap said. “It’s pretty close.” In 2004, students voted for John Kerry for president, Mike Michaud for Congress, and said no to the Palesky property taxpayer referendum, the same as Maine voters.

In 2000, students voted for Baldacci, Susan Collins for U.S. Senator, and Kevin Raye for Congress. Maine voters picked Baldacci, Collins and Michaud, not Raye.

The goal is to give students a sense of what it’s like to vote, Dunlap said. Classroom learning is good, but nothing compares “to the real thing” of going into a booth and deciding.

EL students said the mock election got them interested. They voted “because it’s my civic duty,” said senior Martin Houston. “I like to make my own choices.”

To see the statewide vote at the Secretary of State’s Web page, go to: http://www.maine.gov/mockelection/