On October 11th, Jesuit High School held a mock election. The election was done in correlation with the statewide California Student Mock Election among high school students. Students had the opportunity to voice their opinions on the upcoming political referendum, voting for presidential candidates, congressional candidates, and a variety of propositions. Across the state, about 160,000 students voted, including over 800 Jesuit students.

In general, Jesuit was much more conservative than the majority of the state. For example, in the statewide results, Democrat Hillary Clinton won by a large margin, with 58 percent of the vote to 19 percent for Republican Donald Trump; at Jesuit, however, Trump won with 51 percent to Clinton’s 28 percent. The rest of Jesuit’s presidential votes were divided evenly between the three third-party candidates.

“[Donald Trump] is anti-establishment and the only one who is not a politician,” said an anonymous junior, when asked about Trump’s success at Jesuit. “[He is] the only one who doesn’t need the job, so it seems like he is doing it because he wants to better America.”

At Jesuit, Republican Scott Jones won over the most students for the congressional spot, defeating Democrat Ami Bera, but by a slightly slimmer margin than Trump took the presidential vote with.

On the different measures proposed, Jesuit more closely correlated with the rest of the state. Jesuit voted yes on most of the measures, as did the state as a whole.

With the high number of Jesuit students who took part, the event was considered a success. It offered an opportunity for students to experience voting and see how their position played into the larger result. Regardless of the outcome, the event was good preparation for Jesuit students, who will all be participating in an election process sooner rather than later.