By Amanda Cohen ’18, Staff Writer and Brady Sheaffer ’18, Staff Writer

On Tuesday, November 8th, the United States Election Day, our Newark Academy community decided to conduct a mock election in order to provide the students and faculty with an opportunity to vote for their preferred candidate. Each person that was interested in voting would report to the front foyer of the school and vote for one of the five candidates listed: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson, Evan McMullin, and Jill Stein. Additionally, there was an option to fill out general information about yourself as a prospective voter including gender, grade, and political affiliation. This project was run by students in Mr. Alford’s Advanced Computer Science Class who were intrigued by the political dynamics of the school, and wanted to showcase some of the skills they have acquired.

Although we did not receive the results of the mock election until Wednesday morning, it was clear that Hillary Clinton, the democratic candidate, won by a landslide. The ballot offered five candidates, and out of the 417 students and faculty members who participated, Clinton won 64% (267 votes), Trump won 25% (105 votes), Johnson won 5% (20 votes), McMullin won 4% (15 votes) and Stein won 2% (10 votes). We found it particularly interesting that 11% of the votes were cast for third party candidates, an indication that some members of the NA community were dissatisfied with the Democratic and Republican candidates.

This sentiment of dissatisfaction about the two major candidates can be echoed in the actual election as the thought process behind many voters was to seek out supposed “outsider” candidates. It is evident that our mock election results differed significantly from the actual United States election results, primarily in that Donald Trump is the current President-elect of our country.

When asked about what the results of the Newark Academy mock election say about our school community, Julia Tarnow ‘17 said “the results indicate that we, as a school bubble, tend to vote rather liberal.”  This tendency to vote rather liberal is reinforced by many of the progressive actions students have been encouraged to take in recent years. The immense popularity and presence of clubs such as Gay-Straight Alliance, POWER, Human Rights and the Equity Inclusion Team (which inspire an often liberal thought process), reaffirm why so many students in our community sought out a liberal candidate. The Democratic victory in the mock election can be equally attributed to the political environment that Newark Academy students have grown up in, since New Jersey has been a Democratic state in all presidential elections since 1992. However, there was a relatively strong Republican sentiment this year at Newark Academy, highlighting the diversity of political thought that exists throughout our school. When asked the same question, Andrew Wyshner ‘18, responded that he was interested by the fact that 25% of the voters chose Trump, and he believed that there were many Trump supporters at the school that were scared to admit it aloud, fearing social social backlash from a community that suffocates Trump and Republican ideals. This is quite fascinating as this concept of non-vocal, or hidden Trump supporters was also seen in the actual election. Various polls were completely wrong and underestimated the massive turnout of Trump supporters in many regions, including some important swing states.

The voter turnout was very similar between the mock election and the real election with 58% and 55.4%, respectively. While the national voter turnout was a 20 year low in for American politics, it is crucial we work towards increasing voter turnout in the future through educating the younger population.

We encourage you to seek out the Young Republicans and Young Democrats if you want to express or discuss your political opinions with the rest of the Newark Academy community. Additionally, we urge you to participate in the educational discussions Think Tank has surrounding the election, or politics in general.