Democrats sweep ballot in mock election
Photo by Ariana Alcantar
Senior Lupe Arriola signs up to pick her candidates of choice in commons during lunch hours.
September 25, 2018
If the November elections were held today, Democratic candidates would win all positions, the results of the mock election of Sept. 18 revealed.
“Seems like every Democratic candidate did win,” government teacher John Chisholm said. “Some significantly won. I know JB Pritzker had like 61 percent of the voters. Some others like Peter Roskam and Sean Casten were close. But all the Democrats did win.”
The League of Women Voters, who are a nonprofit organization in DuPage County, helped organize the mock election in commons during lunch hours.
“They (The League of Women Voters) will put on candidate forums for a panel discussion and they do the mock elections,” Chisholm said. “They were out this past week in the football game trying to urge people to vote. So they do a lot in DuPage County trying to promote civic engagement.”
The purpose behind the mock election was for students to see what it feels like to be a voter.
“We’re trying to get them comfortable with it and go through the process of it. Ideally, when they are of age to vote, if they can vote in this election, at least they’ll know how it works and actually go out to vote,” Chisholm said. “That’s the goal, to get them used to it.”
The winners were: JB Pritzker, governor, by 61 percent; Kwame Raoul, attorney general, by 53 percent; Jesse White, secretary of state, by 84 percent; Susana Mendoza, comptroller, by 70 percent; Michael Frerichs, treasurer, by 61 percent; and Sean Casten, Congress, by 58 percent.
Chisholm believes that name recognition played a big role in the election.
“I think it was really interesting to see how our student body voted. What I saw interesting was that the Republican candidate who was closest to winning would have been Peter Roskam and I wonder if that election was closer than all the other mock elections with the different positions because people recognize his name,” Chisholm said. “Perhaps they’re less likely to vote for the Democrat because they recognize the Republican’s name. If people know who you are, they are more likely to vote for you.”
