Mr.Eagle´s AP United States Government and Politics class of seniors is in preparation for a mock election. The goal of the mock elections is to understand the process of running as a candidate in a presidential election: students must prepare campaigns and speeches as they move towards gaining the position of president. 

As I walked into the room I noticed many students were eager to vote and present their reasons for their candidate of choice for the Mock Elections. Four candidates were running against each other to become the next president: Adrian Gama and Juan Tinoco for the Republican side, and Vanessa Rodriguez and Tania Calvillo for the Democratic side. The four candidates worked hard to build up their campaign, gain people’s attention, and steal the win.  

The other students not running for president had to think like a particular state when casting their vote for president (If you are Illinois, you might vote democratic, for example).  And the voting student also had to present the reasoning behind their final vote as well as conduct analysis of the candidates (see video examples).  

MLA News: What are Mock Elections?

Rogelio Maldonado: “Mock elections are a simulation of voting for a candidate in which students running for president in a voting simulation, the student that is running for president creates a campaign and gives a speech of reasons why he or she should be president giving the students to experience an election on the running candidate side.” 

MLA News: What candidates are in the Mock election?

Rogelio Maldonado: Running candidates in the election consisted of two party groups known as the republican and democratic with 2 in one group, Seniors Gama and Juan for Republican and Vanessa and Tania for Democratic.  

MLA News: What Process do you go through in order to conduct a Mock Election?

Rogelio Maldonado: “A process of making a campaign takes at least a month, after the campaign the elections take place for about 2 weeks to vote on the president of the united states in which all 4 candidates run against each other.” 

MLA News: Are the Mock Elections based on school topics or on political topics?

Rogelio Maldonado: “The Mock Elections are based on environmental issues where the person running the campaign will discuss the issues and win the vote of the voter.” 

MLA News: Do students go through a process of making a campaign for the Mock Elections? 

Rogelio Maldonado: “Yes students do go through in making a campaign in order to support and convince the people to vote for him or her, the Campaign took a month or more for the seniors to create for the elections.”