“They really want younger people to get more involved with politics, and I think they are,” 
said Ruben Baldovinos, sophomore businessadministration major and honors student.
“Especially with all the hype it’s been getting.”
A presidential mock election will be held on Oct. 9 at Tyler Junior College and Baldovinos
will help work one of the polling booths. The purpose of this mock election is to promote the
real election and encourage students to vote.
“We’ve ordered 500 buttons that will say ‘Vote November 6,’” Deborah Beange, government professor at TJC, said.
Students will vote at either of two polling booths. One booth will be set up in Rogers Student Center at the information desk on the second floor. The other booth will be located in Jenkins Hall on the first floor under the staircase near the dean’s office.
“We wanted to capture as much diversity as possible,” Beange said.
Government honor students will man the polling place in Jenkins under Beange’s supervision. A combination of honor students and other student leaders will run the Rogers Student Center location where Vincent Nguyen, director of Student Life and Involvement, will be present.
These honor students and student leaders will be available to answer questions about the candidates and about how to register to vote. The scheduled event coincides with the last day to mail in voter registrations.
“We will have registration cards to hand out. They (students) will have an opportunity to register that day,” Beange said.
At each location, voting boxes will be available to place the ballots in. Students will use their Apache ID to register their vote. Quiz scantrons will be provided to use as ballots. This will facilitate a fast and accurate calculation of the results, which will be immediately posted that night on the TJC Facebook account and on Twitter. Results will also be posted in the Apache Pow Wow.
This event will make it possible to identify who the students expect to select for the presidential election but not necessarily who will win the election on Nov. 6.
“It is a straw poll, which means these are not results that can be extrapolated. It is not scientific,” Beange said. “Whatever the results are, it should be tongue in cheek.”
“We’ve not done a mock election before,” said Nguyen. “We hope the students that come out to vote are educating themselves on the two candidates’ platforms and how it may or may not affect them in the future.”
Carol Scott
Student Life Editor
