Mock Election Draws Mixed Student Reactions
Today, November 5th, 2024, people all over the United States will come together to vote for president, with the two major candidates being Vice President Kamala D. Harris (D) and former President Donald J. Trump (R). Electing a president is a fundamental right of US citizens, and it is essential that when it comes time to vote, one is informed about the candidates and their policies. AJA’s current students will all soon have the opportunity to participate in an election, whether it be a few current seniors voting this year or freshmen who will vote four years from now. With this in mind, High School Principal Mr. Rojek decided that it was important for AJA students to be able to learn the basic details about this year’s election, sources they can use to educate themselves on both parties’ candidates and their policies, as well as experience what it’s like to vote.
Dr. Stephenson and Ms. Hecht, both history and social studies teachers in the high school, were tasked with putting this event together creating an unbiased digital slideshow and presentation that accurately shared both Harris’s and Trump’s policies to the students. “We took creative control over the criteria… and put together a presentation to help students [understand] key ideas,” Dr. Stephenson explained.
On Wednesday, Oct 30th, it came time to officially present the candidates to the student body before allowing them to vote. The mock election event began with Dr. Stephenson and Mrs. Hecht introducing the candidates, followed by presentations of party policies by student volunteers. These students presented the Republican and Democratic stances and shared that students can find these positions word for word on the parties’ respective websites. Issues presented include Israel, the economy, opportunity, abortion, and the border.
“Students’ open bias while she and the other students presented the parties’ policies was not a matter of a lack of education but more so of a closed mindset.”
Senior Avigail Gadelov was one of the students who helped present. She believed that the details of the election were indeed “fairly represented” but the crowd’s reaction “was very biased.” Junior Ari Monheit, another student presenter, also noticed this, adding that there were “much louder cheers [for] the Republican party” than the Democratic party. Avigail said that students’ open bias while she and the other students presented the parties’ policies was not a matter of a lack of education but more so of a closed mindset. She remarked, “If you’re more biased towards [something], you kind of only view the positives of that instead of the negatives and vice versa.” Ari, however, had a different point of view. He believed students did not take the event “seriously,” and that instead of really taking in the presentations some were just “joking around.” Regardless of the reason, it was clear that the overall student body supported Trump as a candidate compared to Harris, with the mock election outcome of 61% of students in favor of Trump to 39% in favor of Harris.
Dr Stephenson hoped the event would open students’ minds to the election. “It’s really important, regardless of which party you pick, that you are aware of the other party’s platform.”
Students could have learned more from this educational event if the school “got more students involved in the activity,” according to Ari. From his point of view, greater student involvement would help them take the information “more seriously” and even possibly have their political stance changed or at least questioned.
Senior Noa Geller elaborated on students’ approach to the event. Despite her acknowledgment of its importance, she agreed that “a lot of the other students weren’t really listening to what the presenters were saying and went into the presentation with a fixed mindset.”
Some did find value in the mock election event. Freshman Gilad Livant remarked that he “actually still found this event very meaningful,” learning more about each parties’ platform despite coming and leaving the event with the same strong political views. Although some might not have internalized the information presented, Gilad said that students were in fact given the opportunity to “gain a deeper understanding of each party and its individual policies,” which he appreciated.
After the presentations concluded, the event climaxed with a mock voting process. Students lined outside the voting locations, with underclassmen voting in Beit Midrash Right and upperclassmen voting in Beit Midrash Left. Dr. Stephenson and Mrs. Hecht aimed to create as “authentic” a voting experience as possible, so they decided to construct “voting booths and send the [students] to different rooms” after the presentation, per Dr. Stephenson. Noa saw the effort put into the voting booths and looked back on voting as her favorite part of the event. “It gave me a feel for what it will be like to vote in the future,” she said.
After voting concluded, students returned to Beit Midrash Middle where Dr. Stephenson announced the results of AJA’s mock election, with Trump leading by 22 percentage points.
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