AP US Government classes face off in mock elections

The start of the 2016 calendar year meant campaign season picked up for both the U.S. presidential election and for Chapel Hill seniors Claire DeSelm and Natalie Szogas, who vied for the title of President in a mock Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. Government election.

As part of a class project, AP U.S. Government students assumed the roles of presidential hopefuls—formulating platforms, campaigning for votes and debating national issues. The two campaigns, both Democratic, represented first-year AP U.S. Government teacher Patrick Roeber’s two different class periods; DeSelm was the presidential candidate for the third period “political party,” while Szogas assumed the pseudonym “Elizabeth Hale” and campaigned as fifth period’s candidate.

While AP U.S. Government classes have completed the project in the past, the guidelines were more extensive this year. The process closely followed the national presidential election process, with candidates campaigning first to be their political party’s candidate and then classes pitting the two remaining candidates against each other for the “national” vote.

However, there were some key changes to the traditional presidential election process: there was no fundraising, candidates had individual platforms and—most noticeably—there were two Democratic candidates and no Republican ones. “It was pretty hard debating,” DeSelm said, noting she and Szogas had very similar platforms and agreed with each other’s stances on most national issues. “Although, it was also easier because we weren’t fighting on the stage.”

The involvement of other history classes was also a new addition to the project, as students in Civics and Economics classes this year were the voters in the mock election.

Roeber claims the addition “[added] a sense of realism to it.” “Now you’re campaigning to people that don’t know you and probably don’t know a lot about the issues—or where they even stand on the issues—so it’s a lot like a real election,” Roeber said.

Fifth period campaign manager and junior Marin Wolf enjoyed the “whole class” dynamic of the project. “The class is very diverse in terms of opinions on a lot of different things,” Wolf said. “So getting to see how they interact is pretty cool.”

The project extended outside of the classroom as well, with candidates making newspapers, giving talks in Civics classrooms and creating public pages on multiple social media sites. After a month of campaigning and a final vote on February 5, DeSelm and the third period political party won the election—and extra credit on the unit test.

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