Forget governors races and which party has control of the Senate. The most contested election in the tri-town is getting furry, and one thing is for certain, when you’ve got a raccoon for an incumbent, it’s likely to be an interesting day at the polls.

For Rochester Memorial School, election day was Thursday, and the fate of the long-time school mascot, Bandit the Raccoon, was up for grabs.

Principal Derek Medeiros and Vice Principal ­­­­Charlie West concocted the election as a way to get kids writing, part of the school district’s strategic plan.

“We thought it would be a good idea to have a writing contest and link it to a climate and culture activity,” said Medeiros.

Chosen by RMS students in the 70s, the raccoon has enjoyed a long tenure as school mascot, so Medeiros and West thought it was time to shake it up.

Kids in grades three through six researched and wrote arguments in favor of Bandit or advocating for a new mascot. From those essays, two candidates arose: a ram and a wolf. Staff members further culled the essays to four winners – two for the raccoon and two against.

Evan Smith gave a compelling argument for the ram.

“In cartoons and movies, raccoons have always been thieves, or bad guys, and I think that could set a bad example for our kindergarteners,” wrote Evan.

Addressing the principal, he added, “You could think of yourself as the head ram, and us, the students and teachers, as other sheep, and together we can form a herd, or a school.”

Julia Foye had practical reasons for keeping the racoon. Not only are the “little fellas” found in Rochester’s many trees, but a new mascot would be a financial hardship for the school, she argued.

“If you want to change the raccoon, well, slow down, because we have raccoons on every shirt, poster, sign, water bottle, sicker, and he is on our school website,” wrote Julia. “It would cost too much money to change all of those things! We need all the money we can to buy supplies like glue sticks, pencils, pens, rules and sticky notes!”

The discussion didn’t stay on the page.

Parents said the election was a hot topic at the dinner table. Many of those parents are RMS alums who also went to school under the raccoon's reign.

Medeiros said the election was purposefully held two days after the mid-term elections.

“We tied it to this week so the kids could also experience what their parents experienced on Tuesday,” he said.

The whole setup, staffed by the newly elected sixth grade student council, was like any other polling station. Council members checked in voters and gave them ballots at the door. Kids then went to voting booths on loan from the town. After handing in their ballots, each student (and teacher) got an “I voted” sticker.

Informal surveys on Thursday afternoon showed that the raccoon was in the lead.

Asked why she voted for Bandit, kindergartener Addy Thompson answered enthusiastically: “Because I love him!”

But manning the check-in table, student council member Colin Kulak said he was ready for a change.

“I think it sounds cool to be the Rochester rams,” said Colin. “I think it’s time for a change because the raccoon has been here for 20 plus years.”

First grader Emily Daniels had a soft spot in her heart for Bandit. “I chose him because I think he would be sad to go,” she said.

Apparently a lot of her fellow schoolmates agreed. On Friday, students found out that Bandit the Raccoon would indeed keep his place as mascot, winning by about 90 votes.

As Julia wrote, “I just can’t imagine a better mascot…”

Read the full arguments in the PDF below.