As the busy fall season wraps up, we want to reflect on our school’s first ever mock election held a couple of weeks ago. 2024 has been a major year in US politics, especially with the recent presidential election, but thanks to the efforts of Upper School history teacher Stephanie Sperber and the We the People IMPACT class, KO students have been well-informed and educated about candidates and policies the entire time.
For those who are unaware, the We the People fall elective is a new IMPACT course this year. “It focuses on the American Constitution,” sophomore Leo Liu said, “and how it is interpreted and implemented throughout the United States.” Taught by Ms. Sperber, the interdisciplinary course is highly interactive and hands-on, giving students the opportunity to test their understanding of the material.
“Rather than having tests or quizzes after every unit, we have hearings,” sophomore Ellory Goodhue said. “We are given prompts and take turns speaking, usually about four minutes each, which are then followed by a Q&A segment.” These hearings aren’t just given in front of Mrs. Sperber; the class has presented to a range of guest judges.
“At first, the judges were KO teachers, so the pressure was much lower,” sophomore Adam Gold said, “but we’ve slowly worked our way up to guests like Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives Matt Ritter and Mayor of West Hartford Shari Cantor, which is super cool.”
Ms. Sperber shared some of the aims of this new IMPACT course. “The goal of the class is for students to get a better understanding of what obligations are put on citizens to maintain the democratic system currently in place,” she explained. She also wants students to realize how the Constitution has changed over time and what implications that creates for their own future lives.
The elective class did a lot leading up to KO’s mock election, including but not limited to giving mini-presentations each week at assemblies. Students took turns giving short speeches about different candidates, their individual policies, and general information about the current state of our country.
Ms. Sperber says she remembers doing mock elections when she was in elementary and high school, and the idea of doing something for KO came kind of on a whim. “We wanted to train the students early, which is where the idea for ‘On Tuesdays We Vote’ came from,” she said, “and we really wanted to enforce the ideas of participation being key and engagement leading to conversation.”
When it came time for the mock election to take place, the students were ready. “Many of us [in the We the People class] served as poll workers,” Leo said, “and that included counting ballots, crossing people’s names off as they came in, and checking different forms of ID.”
Despite the excitement and buzz surrounding the mock election, the results were not quite what Ms. Sperber had hoped for. Voter turnout wasn’t 100%, with only 296 total ballots counted. Although there had been higher hopes for voter turnout, Ms. Sperber was still relatively pleased with the mock election. “Overall, the results of KO’s election greatly mirror the results of the national election in terms of political leanings,” Sperber said, “so it was definitely informative for studying statistics and mapping out the thoughts and views of our student body.”
In the end, 30.4% of votes were for the Trump/Vance campaign, while 66.2% of votes were for the Harris/Walz campaign. Additionally, 2.0% of the total vote went to the Kennedy Jr./Shanahan campaign, and the Stein/Ware and Oliver/TerMaat campaigns each received 0.68% of the total vote.
As for the U.S. Senate election, Murphy won with 69.4% of votes, Corey had 26.7% of votes, and Hyde and Paglino shared the other 3.9% of votes. In the U.S. Representative election, Larson recieved 64.8% of votes, Griffin had 27.5% of votes, and Sanders had the remaining 7.8% of votes. Finally in the State Senate, Slap won with 67.5% of votes and Zimmerman followed with 32.5% of votes.
“It was really cool to see our school’s election results put into percentages and see what the turnout looked like,” Ellory said, “and even if you can’t vote, it’s still important to raise awareness and use your own voice, seeing as we are the future.”
“I think it’s important for us to all perform our civil duty to vote and understand where we’re headed towards as a country,” Leo said.
Adam agreed. “It’s also important to be aware of voting and elections results,” Adam said, “and the IMPACT class is such a cool opportunity that KO has to offer, seeing as it’s a form of self-education and a new way of thinking, which not a lot of schools can say they offer.”
Overall, the KO election turnout may not have been exactly what Mrs. Sperber and the students were hoping for, but it’s safe to say that the information learned from the election and the awareness it brought to KO was definitely beneficial. If government and issues like this sound interesting to you, be sure to check out the We the People IMPACT class for next year. Remember, it’s important to be aware of your local and national politics, get informed about what’s going on around you, and above all, use your voice!
