The Carroll Senior High School mock election took place on Nov. 5, hosted by the Student Voter Empowerment Club, or SVEC. The votes overwhelmingly swayed towards Harris, with 133 votes as opposed to 72 in favor of Trump. SVEC’s mission was to enable those who are not 18 to engage in politics.
“I was really excited that our school sponsored this election that promoted our civic right to stake our political claims,” Nick Ferrara, a senior who was unable to vote this year, said. “This mock election let us have the opportunity to be represented, and make a difference in some small way.”
Senior Trevor Mays is co-president of SVEC. He and senior Sanjana Senthil work together to enable people to share their voices.
“It’s so easy to just get wrapped up in the ‘you support this party, I support this party,’” Mays said. “We can’t agree on things, so we can’t share the same morals or anything like that. But with SVEC, it’s opening the doors to this conversation. It’s opening doors to us getting active in our community and talking to the people with different backgrounds and beliefs, so we can reach a better future for everyone.”
For those who could vote, it was their first year being directly involved in politics.
“This campus has all kinds of people and opinions,” Jack Berrett, an eligible-to-vote senior said, “I’ve had some interesting conversations with people about their political beliefs this year.”
Upwards of 200 students registered to vote in the mock election.
“Politics is such a touchy subject,” Berrett said. “Many people steer clear of anything in that bubble of conversation, but from what I’ve seen this year, there’s a lot of students who want to be heard. I think that’s cool.”
SVEC encourages all students to share their voices.
“Our school has a lot of students who are very confident and intelligent and great critical thinkers, who can make smart decisions and valid judgments,” Mays said. “But what hurts them is the ‘group thinking’ mindset, which is the mentality that I have to vote the same as my friends or, my friends aren’t voting, so I’m not gonna vote. Even though they’ll have the conversations knowing these issues are important, they need to start speaking for themselves.”
