By CAROLINE IBARRA and EMILY KAZENMAYER
Staff Writers
A week and a day after Hurricane Sandy demolished the Jersey Shore, the presidential election went on as planned – the real one, that is.
The CHS Mock Election never came to form since it was scheduled for Nov. 1, when many local beach towns were still under water.
After Sandy, Pew Research Center polls showed that Obama had a 50 percent to 47 percent lead over Romney, compared to a tie the week before. The same poll said that 69 percent of likely voters approved of the president’s handling of the storm.
Voting places were relocated and displaced after the storm, but citizens could submit an absentee ballot over email or fax.
The Star-Ledger reported that paper ballots were used after two machines stopped working in Middletown, while the absentee ballots in some towns were not counted.
“Some of the schools and locations that were supposed to have the voting take place were out of power, so all the voting was moved to one school and it was really crowded,” said sophomore Michelle Fu, recalling the voting conditions in Freehold.
The Mock Election at CHS came to an untimely end due to the storm. A series of election-related events, such as final appearances, meetings with the candidates’ “spouses,” and the election itself were cancelled. The Mock Election had been slated for Nov. 1 but students were home for two weeks, starting Oct. 28. To hold the Mock Election after the actual election just didn’t make sense in the days when everyone was trying to get back to normal, said journalism teacher and Mock Election coordinator Andi Mulshine.
Voting could have occurred online through the National Student Mock Election website, but Mulshine said too few students had internet access in the aftermath of the storm.
Freshman Sarah Davis of Tinton Falls predicted that President Obama, played by senior Matthew Goldman of Morganville, would have taken the victory, “because he was the most publicized out of all the candidates.”
Junior Kevin Gibson of Wall disagreed. “I feel like Adam Dorfman’s party would’ve won because the audience at the debate seemed to enjoy his remarks the most,” he said. Dorfman played the part of Libertarian Gary Johnson.
Sophomore Emily Woods of Middletown, who played Green Party candidate Jill Stein, said she was “really disappointed,” since she missed the debate due to illness and was replaced by her campaign manager, sophomore Megan Kelleher.
Junior Stephen Smith of Wall was less interested in the mock election after Hurricane Sandy.
“I don’t know if I would still like to vote because the election’s already passed, and I got to experience all the debates and everything,” Smith said.
Candidate Goldman said that he was “confident” he would win, so he was not too upset by the mock election’s cancellation. Mulshine said the mock election was unlikely to happen after the tragic events, but was still very valuable.
“We had the best candidates, the best debate. We just had lousy timing,” she said.
President Obama won the National Student Mock Election.
This story was published in the print edition of The Inkblot on December 19, 2012.