While the pollsters and the pundits argue over which way North Dakotans will vote in the presidential election today, a high school class in California claims to already know the answer: Sen. John McCain and by a slim margin.

Four students attending Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, Calif., have spent the last two months studying North Dakota's demographics and political history for a class project that is predicting the presidential election in every state.

After some deliberation and critical thinking, North Dakota will be a win for the Republican candidate, said Keenan DuBois, a 15-year-old sophomore at Sir Francis Drake who worked on the project.

"I think we made a lot of the prediction on how North Dakota has voted in the past," DuBois said, noting the state hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 election.

He added the population of North Dakotans that is aged 65 or older is about 3 percent higher than the national average, which should benefit McCain.

DuBois said if he could vote today he would support Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.

"I think that he's definitely a great choice because of his economic plan and his environmental plan," DuBois said.

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or brian.duggan@;bismarcktribune.com.)