Mock election teaches Belmont students voting process

BELMONT — Belmont Middle School held a mock election this week, with Republicans taking a solid victory in the presidential and gubernatorial races, and Democrats stealing the show in the congressional contests. Over 300 students in fifth through eighth grade social studies classes voted. Social studies teacher Mike McLaughlin led the effort. He thinks the experience for the students is important, as in a few years, will have to perform their civic duty for real.

“It’s just being able to get, kind of like a glimpse of what it's like to be part of America as an adult,” he said. “They're using those rights that they are going to get very soon, and they get kind of a practice run at it.”

Students participated in every step of the election process during the exercise on Oct. 28-29. Eighth grade students had a chance to vote and run elections operations. Students were required to give their names and ID numbers to vote, and the eighth graders confirmed them. They were taught how a ballot works and how to fill them out. Student ballot workers counted the ballots and filled in results charts. Occasional ballots marked incorrectly, as in real elections, were not be counted, including voting for more than one candidate in a race. Students learned to decipher this information and decide a ballot's validity.

Eighth grader Braydon Lemay, 14, shared his thoughts Friday following the mock election.

“It felt good, it just felt weird because I’ve never done something like it before,” he said.

The mock election results for the U.S. presidential race were Republican Donald Trump winning by receiving 185 votes, Democrat Kamala Harris 117, and Libertarian Chase Oliver 18. The gubernatorial race results had Republican Kelly Ayotte with 157 votes, Democrat Joyce Craig with 95, and Libertarian Stephen Villee with 73.

Belmont Middle serves students from Belmont in Belknap County, which is in Congressional District 1, and Canterbury in Merrimack County, which is in Congressional District 2. Students also voted for their own respective districts' U.S. House of Representatives candidate, with Democrat Chris Pappas winning in a landslide victory with 186 votes over Republican Russell Prescott, with 65 votes, in CD1. Democrat Maggie Goodlander won CD2 with 51 votes, and Republican Lily Tang Williams received 22 votes.

McLaughlin explained they chose these races for the election as a lot of students already have a recognition of candidates, whether through their parents or political signs.

“If I was at a high school level, maybe I would add in some more,” he said. “But I think getting the base of just those four main ones, it was a good starting place for a lot of the kids.”

Eighth grader Camden Glennon, 13, said these results were expected, but does not think they reflect the potential outcome in New Hampshire, nor the country. He believes a lot of students are listening to their parents, and Belmont is a rural area that leans Republican, which does not account for the results in cities.

“What your parents say are not always correct about what’s happening in elections,” he said. “Your own opinion matters, too.”

On Friday morning, the eighth grade students went over the election results with McLaughlin, then colored in electoral maps based on which presidential candidate they thought would win each state. Students had access to online resources to help with their decisions. McLaughlin does a lot of interactive and hands-on activities in his class, especially when it comes to citizenship topics. He believes it’s better to prepare his students for when they become adults, so they can be confident about how to approach politics.

“I had just noticed how effective that truly was, how much kids absorbed what they were doing when they were going through this election,” McLaughlin said. “Just this year, they just had different reactions and different responses that you don't always get in that discussion piece, if it's just simply talked about.”