South Eugene high school held its mock election today. As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, it lets students cast ballots similar to the general election.
About a dozen teens swarm a table between classes. They’re casting ballots for president, Oregon governor, and other offices and measures.
“This elections’ being run by the Contemporary World issues class, and there’s probably about 80 students working on it in total,” explains Eli Calalang-LaCroix. He's a senior helping coordinate the mock election.
Chad Kessler teaches the class. He’s run mock elections here since 2000, including a midterm two years ago with 65 percent turnout. He’s hoping for 70 percent today. He acknowledges South Eugene High voters lean most toward Hillary Clinton.
“Our demographic is fairly obvious to the Eugene residents," he says.
"There are certainly Donald Trump supporters on campus and there is a conservative percentage of students that are not represented as often and as loudly as I’m sure they would like to be.”
Among the voters is 17-year old Jeremy Lavigno, who won’t be old enough to cast a real ballot until February. His take on the presidential race?
“I think this year is definitely very unusual because the candidates are so…..fiery towards each other. And one candidate saying that if they get elected, to put the other candidate in jail.”
And there are those claims of Russian hackers and rigged systems. Not so at South Eugene. In a tabulation area, ballots are shredded after counting to avoid duplicity.
MOCK ELECTION RETURNS FROM SOUTH EUGENE HIGH SCHOOL
Measure 95: Yes-408 No-241
Yes- 62.87%
Measure 97: Yes- 533 No- 158
Yes- 80.03%
Measure 98: Yes- 539 No- 109
Yes- 83.02%
Measure 99: Yes- 489 No- 163
Yes- 75.00%
Measure 100: Yes- 603 No- 65
Yes- 90.27%
Levy 20-253: Yes- 387 No- 236
Yes- 62.12
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Hillary Clinton: 504 votes 73.68%
Donald Trump: 55 votes 8.04%
Jill Stein: 45 votes 6.58%
Garry Johnson: 19 votes 2.78%
Bernie Sanders(write-in): 16 votes 2.34%
Evan McMullin (write-in): 3 votes 0.44%
Rocky De La Fuente (write-in): 2 votes 0.29%
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Ron Wyden: 581 votes 88.29%
Mark Callahan: 56 votes 8.51%
Write- In Candidates: 21 votes 3.19%
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Peter Defazio: 595 Votes 90.70%
Art Robinson: 51 votes 7.77%
Write- In: 10 votes 1.52%
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Kate Brown: 573 votes 86.42%
Bud Pierce: 84 Votes 12.66%
Write-In: 6 votes 0.90%