Williston Students Vote in Mock Election

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Mr. Teller and Ellie Wolfe ’19 hand out ballots in Birch Dining Commons.

On November 3, the Williston community participated in a mock election called Voting Opportunities for Teens in Every State, or V.O.T.E.S. This student election has successfully predicted the outcome in the general election in six of the last seven presidential contests.

At Williston, the election went to Hillary Clinton, who received 70% of the vote to Donald Trump’s 23%. Mr. Teller, Mr. Syfu, and Mr. Gunn were the faculty advisors to the project, which is led by students Ellie Wolfe ’19 and Josh Calianos ’18. Members of the cast of the play The Comedy of Errors helped count ballots. “We really want to get people in the habit of voting, so when they turn 18 and their votes really matter, they’ll have experience,” said Wolfe, who has been involved with local Democratic politics during the campaign.

The results for the V.O.T.E.S. program overall—in which nearly 75,000 votes were cast in 135 public and private high schools across the country—were closer: 48% for Clinton and 34% for Trump, with Clinton amassing 332 electoral votes and Trump garnering 206. While this election correctly predicted the outcome of the popular vote, it did not foresee a future president-elect Donald Trump.

The bottom line? Students practiced their civic duty last Thursday—and some seniors and PGs actually did cast votes in Tuesday’s election.

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