On November 4, 2016 Jonathan Alder High School conducted its first ever mock election. Throughout the day students went to the library and voted electronically on the computer after signing in with poll workers.

     The electronic ballot gave gave the candidate choices of Donald J. Trump and Mike Pence, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, and Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka. An overwhelming majority of the student body, about 54%, voted for Donald Trump. Around 18% voted for Hillary Clinton, and the rest of the votes were given to minority parties and write in candidates such as Mr. Palmer and Donald Duck.   

    During sixth period various poll workers answered question for the Pioneer Press. When asked if this was a good representation of an actual election, senior Sarah Beam stated, “I do.” Junior Megan North was asked about her role as a poll worker. North said,  “Simply took the students’ names and emails, sent them a link to the ballot and sent them off to vote.”  

    When asked if people took the election seriously, junior Jacob Sullivan replied, “Yes and no. A lot of people did but some people wrote in ‘funny’ people who wouldn’t be good presidents.” When asked the same question, senior Belle Schaefer answered, “Yes, because they were very quiet and respectful to all other voters.”

     When asked what steps were accomplished in preparing for the mock election, the American History and AP U.S. history teacher, Mr. Fink said, “Preparations began even before school started and hours were spent by the “Board of Elections” (group of teachers who worked on this simulation) designing the ballot and setting up the polling location.” Mr. Fink was also asked if another mock election might take place sometime in the future. Fink stated, “Absolutely would do something similar to this for the 2020 election.”