McClatchy Mock Election

On September 23rd, McClatchy held a mock election in the library. Social science classes went to the library to cast their votes for president, U.S. senators, and various state propositions. People over 16 had the opportunity to register as voters. Voting booths were set up for each student to vote in. Once a student was done voting, it was fed into a machine that tallied up all the votes. Students received pens, stickers, and pencils for participating in the mock election.
746 ballots were submitted in total. Out of that 746, 403 students voted for Hillary Clinton. Over half of McClatchy voters want Clinton to take on the presidency in January of 2017. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson received 90 votes. Republican nominee Donald Trump received 81 votes. 73 people voted for Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee. 56 voted for Gloria La Riva, leader of the Peace & Freedom Party. 14 votes were write-ins.
The election for a new senate member to represent California in the U.S. senator was a close one. The two candidates are Kamala Harris, the current Attorney General, and Loretta Sanchez, a congresswoman representing the 46th District of California. Sanchez took 396 votes, while 315 of the votes went to Harris.
Students had the opportunity to vote on a number of propositions and measures. Interestingly enough, all of the propositions and measures had an overwhelming majority of Yes votes over No votes. In a real election, all would have been passed. Students voted on things like an added cigarette tax, English proficiency, gun control, the death penalty procedure, a plastic bag ban, and various types of taxes. All received more Yes votes than No votes.
Hopefully, the mock election instills a desire in McClatchy students to become involved in the political system by voting in future elections. It’s never been more important that youth are involved in politics and making their voices heard. If you have the opportunity to vote this coming November, please do.