The state of California has hosted mock elections for California students every two years since 2004. In these mock elections, students have been able to vote on presidential candidates, school board candidates, ballot measures, city mayors, and U.S. Senators.
“The 2024 California Student Mock Election helps young people discover the importance of elections and the power of their vote in our democracy,” the California Secretary of State’s website said, “It gives high school and middle school students firsthand experience with the electoral process by giving them a chance to make their voices heard on the candidates and issues important to them and their families.”
Besides California, other states such as Washington, Tennessee, and Nevada are also participating in statewide student mock elections.
This year, Berkeley High School is participating in the 2024 California Student Mock Election alongside hundreds of other California schools.
BHS has participated in the California Student Mock Election before, dating back to around 2016. In 2020, the CA Secretary of State’s website reported that BHS voted in the mock election with 92.67 percent of the vote for Joe Biden and 1.33 percent for Donald Trump, with the rest of the votes going to other third-party candidates.
“I do think that (California Student Mock Elections) are important,” Clio Wachtel, the media director for the Civic Leaders club and a BHS junior said, “I think that (Mock Elections) give students who choose to vote in them a good experience to get in touch with how you research for when they truly do need to research before they are voting for real. I think it’s a good chance for students to have an opportunity to really research and take the time to practice voting before it actually matters.”
All California middle and high school students are able to vote in the California 2024 Student Mock Election as long as their schools have registered and have selected a Student Mock Election Coordinator. The Student Mock Election Coordinator for BHS this year is John Villavicencio, the Director of Student Activities at BHS.
“Students have always shown an interest in local and national politics, so I think it’s a very easy way to get a sense of how students feel about candidates that they can vote for and ones that they can’t vote for,” Villavicencio said, “It’s a way to get their opinions on propositions of which the outcomes will count towards and affect them … Voting experience in high school is important because it opens your eyes up to how cities and, in this case, how school boards run. It shows how it affects you and your friends. That’s why I hope people will vote.”
Many students at BHS agree with Villavicencio’s sentiment that voting in high school can be a positive experience.
“I think that voting experience in high school gets you on the path to voting sooner, especially when you’re part of a community where you’re able to get that support,” said Eva Levenson, a BHS junior who is also the President and Founder of the BHS Civic Leaders club. “I think it plants more roots in high school than it does in college, ... I think it’s cool to be able to learn about what’s going to be on the ballot, I think it’s a fun thing to see who Berkeley High would have elected in the upcoming elections.”
This year, in the California 2024 Student Mock Election, BHS students are finally able to vote on BUSD Board Members, the City of Berkeley Mayor, California’s Senator, the U.S. President, and propositions 2-6 and 32-36.
BHS students are able to vote from Saturday, Sept. 21 to Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. This year’s Preliminary Mock Election results will begin to be released on the Student Mock Election website starting at 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, while the final results will be posted on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024.
BHS is aiming for 75 percent participation from students in the Mock Election, although as of Monday, Oct. 1, 2024, only around 100 students have voted, Villavicencio said, “There’s a lot of information that is being directed at students,” said Villavicencio. “It’s just like when can they find the time, and so the principal time when everyone can do it is in a class, then that becomes up to the teacher to allow and to mention it and to help create the space where people can vote on it … We have under a hundred motivated students (who) have completed the mock election ballot on their own, and now we have another 3,000 (who have not). We hope teachers can see some merit in doing it.”