By KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
MONROE — If the recent presidential election were decided in the Monroe Township Middle School mock election, the U.S. House of Representatives would be the deciding factor in who the 45th president of the United States would be.
The 1,700 or so middle school students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades held their own election night on Nov. 7 with deafening applause for all parties — Democrat, Green, Libertarian and Republican — inside the middle school gymnasium. However, no clear winner was decided.
Mayor Gerald Tamburro and Councilwoman Elizabeth “Betty” Schneider were on hand to see the process.
The assembly modeled a meeting of the Electoral College, but took on the spirit and excitement of the political conventions.
Student electors representing each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia announced the results of their state and a digital map projected on screens maintained a running tally of electoral votes.
“Our school has, for over 30 years, hosted a simulated presidential election in election years,” said Christy Viszoki and Nicole DiLorenzo, eighth grade social studies teachers.
In September, the students across the three grades applied to represent the presidential and vice presidential candidates from all four parties.
On Oct. 28, the students presented speeches to the student body at the Richard P. Marasco Center for the Performing Arts in Monroe. The students worked with faculty advisers to make sure they captured their candidates’ policies and personalities.
Along with the candidates, each campaign had a spokesperson and some students played the role of Secret Service agents.
Principal Chari Chanley, who was decked out in blue eyelashes and the colors of the American flag, said her motto is creating good citizens.
She said the students embrace the entire political process from registering to vote, running for a seat to writing speeches and electing the next president of the United States.
On Jan. 20, 2017, the school will hold an inaugural ball for the parties, which selected a charity to raise money for.
“We are very proud of this,” she said.
Sixth grader Ayaan Bohra, who served as the Democratic campaign spokesperson, said he really enjoyed learning about the whole election process.
“The results definitely surprised me,” he said. “I did not know about the process of a ‘contingent election’ until our Electoral College assembly.”
The students learned if each candidate does not gain the necessary 270 electoral votes, each state represented in the House of Representatives elects the next president from the three candidates who received the most electoral votes.
The candidate who collects 26 votes from that vote wins the presidency.
“I enjoyed the explanation of policies from all four parties,” said eighth grader Vinisha Patel, who served as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “The election process was a very interesting and educational part of our democracy. Whether I agreed with the policies presented, I learned about different viewpoints I would not have known about without this activity.”
Vinisha said she also enjoyed the debate of ideas between peers, bringing to the surface many of the issues that are near and dear to the students, such as high-stakes testing, college affordability, national security and terrorist attacks/organizations.
“The one thing I was surprised about regarding this process was how much interest was taken by my peers in this activity,” she said. “When the students know they make a difference and see the results of their actions, their interest and response grows [which in turn] improves the outcomes, results and feedback, whether it is negative or positive.”
Seventh grader Lyndsey Sheiner served as Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine.
“I enjoyed sharing my speech and ideas to my peers,” she said. “I also enjoyed having my own Secret Service agents.”
She said she was very surprised with the results because there was no winner.
Eighth grader Thiago Andrade served as Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson.
“Something I greatly enjoyed about this election was the fun we had on the trips and backstage between speeches,” he said. “It was fun to construct a speech and see how an audience would react to it.”
Thiago said he was surprised by the amount of support Green Party candidate Jill Stein — portrayed by Audrey Chen — received.
“Her speech was phenomenal, which I understand helped her gain support,” he said. “I also thought Donald Trump would win in a landslide, since so many (student) voters I spoke with said they did not like Clinton.”
He said he was originally disheartened by his single electoral vote, but that feeling washed away as he received the most applause when the popular results were announced.
“[It was] interesting how 10 percent of the school voted for us, but still [we] only received one electoral vote,” he said. “Although the real results may have been inconclusive, I believe the majority of the school wanted Trump to win.”
Seventh grader Cassidy Sheiner served as Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld.
“I enjoyed presenting speeches to the whole school because I had Secret Service agents,” she said. “Not only that, I also liked hanging out with all the people in the election.”
Cassidy said she was surprised that out of all 50 states in the school, her party only earned one electoral vote.
“I’m also surprised by how much I learned about politics,” she said.
Eighth grader Anamika Rao served as the Libertarian campaign spokesperson.
“I enjoyed that I could learn about the candidates and what they stand for,” she said. “I also enjoyed speaking in front of the school about topics that matter to me.”
She said it surprised her how hard it was to change people’s minds to vote Libertarian and how the people reacted to the speeches.
As the Green Party candidate, Audrey said she enjoyed the experience of filling the shoes of a presidential candidate.
“We got to experience the problems candidates face when persuading people to vote for them such as negative feedback and addressing delicate issues,” she said.
She said she believes they were able to learn that presidential candidates are humans, too.
“I also enjoyed how we were able to learn a lot about the issues our country has and how our real candidates plan to deal with them if elected,” she said.
Chen said the results were rather interesting because none of the political parties actually won the 270 electoral votes required to be elected into office.
“The Green Party won 56 electoral votes, which is surprising because we are the least popular party in the real election,” she said. “I believe this shows if minor parties had the same exposure as major political parties they would have a far greater chance in the election.”
Seventh grader Tanvi Sivakumar served as Green Party vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka.
“I enjoyed having to work with others and experience a whole new world,” she said. “I got to hear other opinions and make speeches that helped spread the word about the minor parties. It was a truly fun and educational experience. Working like this gave us a hint of how the real election works.”
Tanvi said she had expected Donald Trump to win their school-wide vote.
“When the results showed none of us won, I was shocked,” she said. “I did not expect the reaction of the audience or the voters. It always kept you on your toes waiting for more.”
Eighth grader Jillian O’Connell served as the Green Party campaign spokesperson.
“I really enjoyed learning what the candidates believed,” she said. “Since the ‘real’ election was so negative, it was nice to learn the candidates’ real viewpoints.”
Jillian said she also enjoyed that the students got to learn about the third party candidates.
“Since they were not included in the debates and were not in the news as much, most people didn’t know much about them,” she said. “Finally, I liked being able to write the speeches and work with different types of people throughout the whole process. It was a pleasure to work with these people and be a part of this whole process.”
Sixth grader Soham Bari served as the Republican campaign spokesperson.
“I enjoyed giving my two speeches to the audiences of our middle school,” he said. “I also enjoyed applying and trying to get this position.”
He said he learned that just earning more votes does not mean you win.
“I was also surprised that the Green Party didn’t get many votes, but they did get a lot of applause during the candidates’ speeches,” he said. “This showed me that popularity is a big part of the election.”
Eighth grader Owen Dougherty served as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“My favorite part of the election process was giving the speech I wrote,” he said. “The applause afterwards was electrifying.”
He said he was not too surprised with the fact that nobody won.
“The Green [Party] candidate had a great speech, which took votes from the two major parties,” he said. “But I am surprised that the Republican candidate received more votes than the Democrat in a Democratic town (Monroe Township) with a Democratic mayor in a mostly Democratic state.”
Owen said he believes that this is because of the strength of the Green Party speech.
“They were able to steal Democratic voters by presenting many of the same points in slightly better ways,” he said.
Contact Kathy Chang at [email protected].