Student volunteers Isla Drewette-Card and Brooke Moore stand before voting booths at Mt. Ararat High School’s mock election in Topsham, Maine. (Photo by Eesha Pendharkar/ Maine Morning Star)
By the time Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows arrived at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham, about 50% of high schoolers had cast their ballots in Maine’s mock election.
Principal Chris Hoffman escorted Bellows, along with other staff and students who helped coordinate the election, observing the process unfolding in the high school auditorium.
Bellows praised the school for getting real voting booths from the town for the mock election, setting up instructions to vote and handing out stickers to make the experience more authentic. The Secretary of State emphasized to students Maine’s record-high voter turnout in 2022, telling them to aim for at least 62% of the eligible school population to break Maine’s midterm turnout record.
“I just think for students to like it feels very real if it’s set up exactly like what their parents are doing or what they’re going to be doing in a couple years,” Bellows said to teachers and student volunteers.
“There’s just something about that muscle memory of going to the booth and filling it out, which is cool.”
Maine students voted for Donald Trump, congressional incumbents
More than 140 schools participated in Maine’s mock election a week before Nov. 5, and 115 schools submitted results to the Secretary of State’s office by Wednesday. According to those results, 11,329 students, or 52%, voted for Republican nominee former President Donald Trump, and 41% for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.
Students also voted for Maine’s three incumbents in congressional races: Democratic U.S. Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree and independent U.S. Sen. Angus King. The 2nd Congressional District race was close, with Golden defeating Republican challenger Austin Theriault by less than a percentage point.
“Oftentimes a student vote will, in fact, mirror the national trend, but not always,” Bellows said.
“The student mock election is self-selected — it’s the schools that are deciding to participate — so it’s a snapshot, but it’s not a complete snapshot.”
Students led the charge in Topsham’s mock elections
Two Mt. Ararat student volunteers, juniors Brooke Moore and Isla Drewette-Card, helped set up the almost entirely student-led mock election. They said there was excitement among their peers to be part of the voting process.
“I feel like a lot of us were really excited just to actually get to first-hand experience,” Moore said. “I know a lot of us have gone to vote with our parents, but it’s been nice to actually do it ourselves.”
“It’s been really nice to learn how politics works,” Drewette-Card added.
“As we grow up, we’re going to be rushed into that world without much knowledge that we get taught in school about it.”
The sixteen-year-olds can’t vote yet, much like the vast majority of students who cast mock ballots in the statewide election simulation held across more than a hundred schools in Maine. But this experience will get them ready for when they are old enough to vote in two or four years, according to alternative education teacher Reilly Fitzgerald, who helped organize Topsham’s mock election this year.
He said he was heartened by how many student volunteers signed up to offer instructions, hand out stickers, collect and count ballots in addition to the high voter turnout at the high school.
Fitzgerald hopes students take away “how easy it is to vote,” he said. “You’re not committing to multiple hours of doing something, you’re just going in and filling out the ballot and doing your part.”
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