GENESEO — On Oct. 30, Geneseo Central School students joined the ranks of American voters in their own mock Election Day.
The event was designed to create a meaningful Election Day experience for the school’s grade 6-12 students.
Students in A. P. Government and Participation in Government (P. I. G) classes created an unbiased informational poster which was hung up around the school to inform voters. The poster was created by the A.P. Government students and then sent over to the P. I. G. classes to be checked for bias.
Once the posters were hung up, the students did small segments on the morning announcements about the importance of voting.
On Oct. 29, students in the Government classes went into social studies classes and made a presentation about the process of registering to vote. All students who participated in the optional voting simulation filled out a voter registration form in order to create a realistic voting experience.
On Oct. 30, grade 6-12 students went to the library, which acted as “election headquarters,” during their social studies classes to log on to the voting simulation program. According to a plan of the program written by A. P. Government teacher Jay Kaczmarek and P. I. G. teacher Tara DeVay, students were not informed about congressional candidates as it duplicates the experience of most voters who have little to no knowledge of any information other than presidential candidates
In the week following the simulation, the A. P. Government class broke down the data and studied the trends of voting in the school. The class presented its findings to students today on the morning announcements.
The results are as follows:
President Obama 61%, Romney 39%
Senate Gillibrand 46%, Long 34% (For the Senate race the students made up a fake candidate to demonstrate lack of voter knowledge of candidates) Chip Stoler received 20 % (1 in 5 people voted for someone who does not exist)
House of Representatives Slaughter 46%, Brooks 54%