The Bromfield School’s students and faculty took part in a mock election last week, and the results make an interesting comparison with the town’s voting patterns on Super Tuesday.
As in real elections, Bromfield students and teachers had to register ahead of time, and about half did so. Again as in real elections, not every registered voter cast a ballot on election day. While 62 percent of Harvard’s registered voters went to the polls on Super Tuesday, Bromfield voters turned out at an impressive 74 percent rate for their mock election on Monday, Feb. 29.
Bromfield voters cast their ballots before school or at lunch in the hallway outside the cafeteria, using several wooden voting booths that town voters would also use the next day. They inserted their ballots into a genuine Harvard ballot box that Town Clerk Janet Vellante has lent the school for the regular event.
In party affiliation, the Bromfield apples did not fall far from the Harvard tree. Democrats outnumbered Republicans by about two to one in both the school election and the official town one.
On the GOP side, Bromfield votes again mirrored town voting patterns, with the top five vote-getters finishing in almost the same order. In both elections, Donald Trump won with about a third of the votes cast. Student voters liked Marco Rubio slightly more than adult voters did, giving him second place at Bromfield instead of third. John Kasich, who came in second among town voters, was third in the mock election. In both contests, Ted Cruz took fourth place and Ben Carson fifth.
‘Feeling the Bern’
But Bromfield’s Democratic voters “felt the Bern” far more than town voters did. Bernie Sanders won the Bromfield election decisively with 61 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 34 percent. In the town’s official primary, Clinton edged out Sanders 51 to 49 percent.
Bromfield current events teacher Kristin McManus organized the mock election with her students, who helped register the voters, advertise the event, staff the tables at the election, and count the results.
“I enjoyed voting in the mock election. The process felt realistic, and many people participated,” said Emma Hynes, a senior at the Bromfield School.
