By William Schuster,
Staff Writer.
On Nov. 5, our school held a mock election, orchestrated by our Government teacher Andy Brennan, to mirror the one that was occurring nationwide. This was the first time he had coordinated a mock election, but in the past Arthur Horner, a retired history teacher, used to set up polling stations and conduct in-person mock elections.
While such an event could have been an option this year, the logistics of organizing a schoolwide in-person mock election would have been unwieldy, inconvenient and would have required a cut ballot. Therefore, after conferring with principal Dr. Mark Ryan, Brennan decided that it would be conducted through a Google Form and contain the entire ballot instead.
Originally, the plan was to follow along with the state-run mock election, but it was conducted on Oct. 8, earlier than anticipated. Therefore, Brennan took it upon himself to set up his own mock election, including a sample ballot and an online voter guide for students to use.
While the idea was to first use the ballot from the state’s mock election, it only contained state-level items, so Brennan downloaded his own sample ballot with all of the election information. Brennan said he made it so that “students get to see everything that is on an actual ballot and allow for discussions with their parents who would actually be voting.”
Furthermore, Brennan took it upon himself to create his own website and voter guide for students’ use, turning it into a “labor of love.” It took time to search for information and create the guide, but he said that “it definitely helped me better understand the issues and I hope [it] makes it easier for the students as well.”
During fourth period on Election Day, nearly 600 Santa Rosa High School students took out their Chromebooks and filled out the online ballot with their choice of presidential candidates, senate members, state representatives, statewide propositions and local ballot measures. Results were tallied and released on Brennan’s voter guide website after voting ended at 3:30 p.m.
In the end, the mock election was a successful substitute for the actual election that most students were unable to participate in. As Brennan put it, “Ultimately, we want to inspire students to become voters in the future and understand the process and why it is important.” The mock ballot worked very well, and he said, “We will definitely do it for the next election.”
