NATCHEZ — Though the presidential election isn’t slated to take place for two more weeks, a group of Natchez citizens have already cast their vote.

The seventh- and eighth- grade history students at Robert Lewis Middle School are participated in One Vote. The voting awareness campaign is sponsored by Channel One Network, a news provider for teens.

Seventh-grade students voted on Monday and eighth-grade students will vote today.

Celeste Kinds, a seventh-grade history teacher at RLMS and chairperson of the history department, is overseeing the project. She said the goal of the program is to instill the importance of voting in students at a young age — even before they are legally able to vote.

“We already know that there is going to be change, no matter who is elected. It is important for them to know, from an early age, that they can be a part of that change by voting,” Kinds said. “If they don’t vote, they have no say so.”

For Kinds, it is important for her students to understand the importance of voting, but she doesn’t want them voting blindly. To help them learn about the issues, Kinds has had her students read articles from the newspaper about the campaign issues and each candidate’s plan.

“They are too young to work so the economy doesn’t directly affect them, and they aren’t old enough to really vote but they still need to understand the issues that are out there,” Kinds said. “I don’t want the students voting for a (Barack) Obama because he is black or (John) McCain because he is white.”

After doing the research, seventh grader Kejuan Jones decided to cast his vote for Obama because of Obama’s campaign promise of change.

“I voted for him because he said he is said he is going to make changes,” Jones said “We need a change of environment.”

Jones’ seventh-grade classmate Lorenzo Smith also voted for Obama. Smith decided on Obama because of his policy on education.

“If we can change the schools and make them better, we can grow up and be able to make more changes that are needed,” Smith said. “He will enable us to be better.”

Smith said that Obama’s campaign for the presidency has taught him that his goals are attainable.

This isn’t Jones or Smith’s first time learning about the election process. Both said the voted in mock elections when they were students at Morgantown Elementary School.

This isn’t Kinds’ first experience at teaching the election process either. Last year, while teaching eighth grade history, Kinds had her students debate election issues based on different candidates’ plans.

“They had to come to the library and research the candidates and get together with groups and talk about the issues,” Kinds said. “They even made campaign signs. They really had a good time with it.”

The nationwide results will be faxed to the school and broadcast on Channel One next week. Kinds said the results are supposed to divided by school so students can see just how their votes compared to results from other areas.