As tensions grew in the United States over which presidential candidate to elect for the next four years, Year 14 Government & Politics students (currently studying the Government of the USA) took the opportunity to hold their own mock election. With stickers, flags, and decorations and our very own Trump and Harris ( crocheted by Mrs Bradley), the class got underway with planning the ‘Politics in the USA Day’ on the 5th of November (the date of the real US election).

The day involved two elections during lunch time: one in which students voted for either Republican nominee Donald Trump or Democrat candidate Kamala Harris; and the other in which students voted for an anonymous ‘Candidate A’ or ‘Candidate B’ – described by each candidate’s policy positions displayed on a poster behind the ballot box. We publicised policies such as ‘Climate Change is a Hoax’ and ‘Restore Roe v. Wade’.  This system allowed the 6U class to measure how much of an impact Donald Trump’s popular (yet divisive) personality had on people’s voting behaviour. The results were:

Whilst Year 14s had predicted a Trump win in the first vote, they had mistakenly forecast him to lose in the second unseen election. It was notable that Trump won by a larger vote share in the first election compared with the second where the candidates’ identities were kept secret, and voting took place on policies alone.

The day was enjoyed by a great number of students who could get a small bun, kindly made by Mrs McMurry. The day was also very educational for students (and teachers) as the Year 14 politics students also took the initiative to teach Year 8 students a bit about US politics and how the election works during their history periods.

Now that Trump is set to be the next president (winning nearly every swing state along with flipping the Senate for the Republicans), it appears that LGS students seem to have been a pretty accurate predictor of who would take the White House in 2024.

By Boyd O’Neill