Voting has been taking place today for Shiplake College's Mock US Election.
As part of this, a Shiplake Electoral College has been created with electors distributed equally between houses based on the pupil population in each house. With a total of 40 electors across the College, the winning candidate needed a majority of 21 electors.
Pupils and staff have been voting virtually for their favourite candidate across the College. The cut off for voting was 3.00pm, with votes counted by 'Head of the Shiplake Electoral College', Mr Kevin Dickey.
Each candidate's campaign video was broadcast in assembly yesterday:
- Representing the Trump-Pence (Republican) ticket is Freddie Westbrook-Burr and Matthew Healy
- Representing the Biden-Harris (Democrat) ticket is Poppy Whitfield and Anna Galpin
- Representing the Kanye West (Independent) ticket is Will Symons
And the results are in....
Will Symons, representing the Kanye West Ticket, has won the US Mock Presidential Election!
He won the popular vote (circa 53%) and 31/40 Electoral Votes (77.5%).
Though the Trump-Pence ticket (Freddie Westbrook-Burr and Matthew Healy) won 11.85% of the popular vote, they did not win any Electoral Votes.
The Biden-Harris ticket (represented by Poppy Whitfield and Anna Galpin) won 35.19% of the popular vote; however, they were only able secure the Electoral Votes of two Houses (22.5%).
Mr Dickey said: "This was not a close-run campaign. Kanye West was the clear winner. Will Symons, who represented Kanye, produced a great campaign film and deserved to win. It should be pointed out that Will won 53% of the popular vote, but managed to secure 77.5% of the Electoral Votes.
"Conversely, Poppy and Anna won 35% of the popular vote and yet only managed to secure 22.5% of the Electoral Votes. The Trump-Pence ticket won 11.85% of the popular vote, but got no Electoral Votes whatsoever. Once again, this shows how a winner-takes-all electoral system does not comply with 'one person, one vote'.
"It will be interesting to see how Kanye performs in the real presidential election (yes, he is still in the race in 13 states!) on Tuesday 3 November. He is looking less like a spoiler and more like a blip in the actual race, though. Well done to all the candidates who participated in the Mock Election. I think it is a good way to mark the beginning of half-term break."
