By Kendall Westgate, WestgateK@Findlay.edu
With a total of 416 votes cast in the 2024 Rock the Mock election, the University of Findlay community chose Donald Trump as the next president of the United States with 54.3% of the votes. UF students, faculty and staff cast their votes for Rock the Mock Oct. 29 – a mock election put on by the Pulse Media club to promote voting.
“I think the event went really well,” Pulse Media Vice President Grant Goodfellow said. “Some reasons it went well is because of all the student helpers we had and our planning weeks prior to make sure everything went smoothly.”
Those who participated in Rock the Mock were able to vote for the six presidential candidates running for office in the 2024 election. The candidates include Donald Trump-R, Kamala Harris-D, Chase Oliver-L, Jill Stein-G, Peter Sonski-ASP, and independent candidate Richard Duncan.
With 226 votes, Trump won the mock election with Harris coming in behind with 175 votes or 42%. Oliver had a total of seven votes; Stein with two votes; Sonski with one vote; and Duncan with five votes.
“I thought this event was pretty cool. It was quick, easy, and anonymous,” junior Emaly Garrett said. “I actually found it encouraging to go out and vote for real.”
The UF community was also able to vote for Ohio’s U.S. Senator with the choices being Don Kissick-L, Bernie Moreno-R, and current U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown-D. Moreno took the lead with 217 votes or 52.2% with Brown following behind with 168 votes or 40.4%. Kissick had a total of 31 votes.
“My favorite part was seeing all the students coming out to vote and becoming more educated about the voting process,” Goodfellow said. “There were even foreign students who are not U.S. citizens who were able to participate in the event and learn about American politics.”
The Pulse Media club set up polling locations in the AMU and CBSL. Voters then scanned a QR code, which took them to a survey to vote. After they voted, they could receive a free hoodie, cookie, and sticker.
“My favorite part was the free sweatshirt because it’s cute and promotes voting,” Garrett said. “The locations were a great choice as well.”
The club gave out a total of 373 hoodies to participants. Goodfellow also included what they would like to improve upon for next time.
“In the future, we would like to collect more data about voter demographics to publish with the results,” Goodfellow said. “We would also like to be able to get more hoodies to give out to students as they ran out very quickly.”
In the past, Rock the Mock popular vote results at UF have mirrored the nation’s electoral college vote. In the 2016 Rock the Mock event, 567 total votes were cast. Trump defeated Clinton 47.3% to 37.2% with 268 votes to Clinton’s 210 votes. In 2020 UF voted for Joe Biden as the Rock the Mock president. Biden received 268 votes to Trump’s 265 votes.
We have to wait one week to find out if UF’s results, once again, look like the nation’s electoral college results.