Fleetwood Hosts Mock Election

On Tuesday, 8 November, Fleetwood Area High School conducted its 2016 presidential mock election. This mock election was conducted by the Tiger TV Media students and received a lot of help from an assortment of other departments, including the social studies department and the head of the library, Mr. Kirby Barnett.

Students and their classes represented different states in the electoral college. Students reported to the library with their social studies classrooms and voted. They first had to register using their student ID.  Then they moved to another computer to cast their votes.

The final results for the Presidential race were 407 electoral votes for Donald Trump and 131 for Hillary Clinton. None of the electoral votes were won by a third party candidate.

In the U.S. Senate race, Senator Pat Toomey beat out Senator Katie McGinty 455 to 252. And for the U.S. House race, Costello garnered 432 votes while Parrish only received 280.

The event gave students new insights on how voting actually works. Many high schoolers do not even know what a real ballot looks like. Thanks to Mr. Barnett, the online ballot resembled one that is found at a voting booth.

The TV media students created a live stream that was available to everyone in the school. During the livestream, reporters interviewed students as they exited the library, asking them questions that were based on exit polls conducted by several social studies classes.

Tiger TV also had panel discussions about the hottest issues discussed during this election. Topics included civil rights, the Second Amendment, police brutality, and the economy. Some of the students who were part of the panel discussions were Ripley Price, Jon Sanchez, Alyssa Hall, and Shane Burt. During each discussion, each student was either on the Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton side, and he or she argued his or her respective viewpoints.

There were also exit pollers that were scattered around the library asking the students their specific opinions on several subjects discussed by the panel. Many of the students enjoyed the experience and thought that it was beneficial for them.

“I think that this is a good experience to teach us as high schoolers how real voting works and what a real ballot looks like. I enjoyed the experience,” senior Marckens Griffon said.