Teenage Barack Obama may have swung the election.

Once he remembered who he is, that is.

A Dallastown Area High School 10th grade social studies class had the pleasure of hearing from Barack Obama on Thursday.

Obama, in this case, was Austin Albright in an Obama mask, but that's beside the point. Albright, who walked into the room with classmate Tatiana Purnell as Michelle Obama, was part of a small group giving a presentation about Obama's economic policies.

Teacher Tammy Brown had the sophomore students present Obama's and Mitt Romney's campaign platforms in recent days "just to give them some exposure" to the election process, Brown said.

Albright took it up a notch by pretending to be Obama, a fact he forgot once or twice when it came to pronouns.

"Obama, I mean, I, passed Wall Street reform," Albright said as students laughed.

The class was one of several in the building taking part in a mock election as well. The results will be delayed until Tuesday, as the storm pushed back plans for a few days. But in Brown's seventh-period class, Obama won by a 12-6 margin over Romney. Ron Paul got a vote, too.

Historically, students usually lean a little Republican, Brown said.

Albright voted for himself.

Campaign tested: Down the hall in Advanced Placement Government and Politics, Dallastown students opened class with a current events discussion on the presidential campaign. One student had noticed the media coverage of Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie and his views of Obama's hurricane relief efforts.

"This staunch supporter of Mitt Romney ... has come out the past few days and lauded the president," replied teacher Mark Koons.

Most students in the class aren't old enough to vote yet, but Blake Dube, a senior, recently registered to vote as a Republican.

"We're really excited it's so close," Dube said of the election.Dube said the class figured Obama might win in a landslide early on, but now, according to their predictions, it'll come down to wire.

Koons' class also ran a mock campaign in recent weeks with made-up political parties, a debate, campaign videos, social media pages and more.

Josh Berkley, 17, got to be one of the candidates. As he recalls, he was absent when his party chose their name, and so he was nominated for the prestigious Golden Armadillo party (A central party belief, according to their campaign poster: repeal Obamacare.)

The debate ended up being a learning experience, Berkley said, one that gave him an appreciation for how much pressure Obama and Romney must be under.

"I had to think on my toes. It was more difficult than I thought," he said.

- Reach Andrew Shaw at ashaw@yorkdispatch.com