Hillary Clinton won by a landslide in Springhill Lake Elementary School’s mock election on November 7. With all the students and faculty participating, Clinton took 706 votes, Donald Trump had 73, Jill Stein had 42, and Gary Johnson had just 16. It was an efficient election. On Monday morning, classes spent 15 minutes visiting one of two polling spots in the school. The students belly-upped to the v o t i n g b o o t h s — cardboard dividers on a table that blocked their neighbor’s view — and addressed the laptops that worked as voting machines. E a c h l a p t o p showed pictures of all four candidates. Volunteers, who wore stickers saying election judges, stood by ready to help with the mechanics of choosing a candidate. Some students brought notes and consulted them. Others simply pointed at their choice. While the results were announced at the end of the day, the real lesson came right after the ballots were cast. Volunteers handed out stickers to the participants and encouraged them to start a lifetime habit of voting.
Springhill Lake Elementary Holds Mock Election
First grader Ian Chavez is assisted by volunteer Jose Segova Canada in Springhill Lake’s mock election. Photo by Amy Hansen