As election day approaches, Tuesday, social science teacher Nic Spiess’s AP Government period 2 class will be holding a mock presidential election the same day. Since 2008, every four years, Spiess’s classes have held similar presidential mock elections. This year, the class worked to introduce and inform students on the five presidential candidates; Kamala Harris representing the Democratic Party, Donald J. Trump representing the Republican Party, Chase Oliver representing the Libertarian Party, Claudia De la Cruz representing the Socialist Party, and Jill Stein representing the Green Party.
“[At the beginning], I got a group of students in my government class who were interested in running the first Westview mock election,” Spiess said. “It was an idea I offered them in place of a community service project, and it stuck.”
The project is entirely student-run, though Spiess does have some minor oversight.
“In previous years, it was solely volunteer-based,” Spiess said. “But now, I’ve made it so that period 2 is running the mock election and period 3 is running a clean-campus project. ”
As the co-head of the mock election alongside Kaitlyn Arciaga (12), Cayden Pasion (12) is in charge of overseeing the whole operation.
“We delegated around six or seven different committees,” Pasion said. “I assigned heads of each committee, and they are my executive team.”
Feedback/HR, Publicity, Posters/Social Media, Education, Voting Logistics, Post-Election, Liaison/Outreach, and Finance are the eight committees that work together to run the mock election.
Sophie Ayma (12), the head of Voting Logistics, is in charge of making sure the voting process and ballot boxes are efficient.
Ayma met with other members of the Voting Logistics committee and discussed how they would get the results of the election quickly.
“We are communicating with [Assistant Principal Shannon] Parker, as well as other groups, in order to figure out a way to ensure that each vote will be anonymous,” Ayma said. “Everything will be through the students’ ID numbers.”
Voting tables will be in the plaza starting Tuesday, the morning before school, as well as during lunch and Wolverine Time.
“We really wanted to have that in-person voting experience,” Ayma said. “We thought about doing it through Google forms, but we felt that it wasn’t quite as personal.”
To ensure that there is no voter fraud, Ayma said that there is going to be a group who crosses off ID numbers in an Excel Sheet to ensure no double-voting occurs.
“We, as well as the other groups, are trying to give out information about the five candidates so that people can make the vote they feel most comfortable with.”
Phoebe Vo (12), head of the Education committee under Publicity alongside Robert Gray (12), is in charge of making sure that students get unbiased information about each of the candidates.
“[The education department] wants to make sure that students know who they are voting for,” Vo said. “We want to make sure they are not swayed by misinformation, and that they are getting their sources from credible and neutral places.”
Vo, and the rest of the education department, have visited many humanities classes during SSH to give the students unbiased and general information about each of the candidates.
“In our presentation, we educate the students on the candidates’ stances on the economy, immigration, abortion, gun rights, and the environment,” Vo said.
Along with providing information for students, the mock election serves as a way to spread civic engagement.
“A lot of students are old enough to vote, but some aren’t,” Ayma said. “But we feel, since in the next few years all of the students will be old enough to vote, that it’s a great experience to be able to partake in.”
Spiess said that he believes voting is a vital way for Americans to voice their opinions. Though it is only in practice, the mock election will give a civic voice to the student body.
“[The mock election] provides people motivation and practice, as well as a bit of excitement, especially for high school students who will soon be able to vote,” Spiess said.
Any student of any grade will be able to participate in this mock election.
“It would be nice to know the diversity of Westview [students’ political viewpoints],” Ayma said. “Because we are a pretty big school, there are definitely differing political views, and that’s really special.”
