Parsippany Hills High School in Morris County, New Jersey, recently held a mock gubernatorial vote. It appears that even though there are 12 candidates on the actual ballot, the school handed out ballots with only the Democratic, Republican and Socialist Party nominees, and independent candidate Chris Daggett. This may be related to the fact that there were high school students willing to act out a mock high school debate for those four particular actual candidates. The student holding himself out as Greg Pason, the actual Socialist Party nominee, said in the high school debate that he would work for free university tuition and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
The results: Corzine (Democrat) 121 votes, Christie (Republican) 97 votes, Daggett (independent) 95 votes, Pason (Socialist) 79 votes. Pason’s total was 20.1% of the total vote cast. See this story. Thanks to Darcy Richardson for the link.
Check ALL of their birth certificates, and make sure they’re all LONG FORM, too.
Free tuition AND $15 per hour minimum wage… why didn’t THAT guy win????
I voted for the Socialist candidate in my 8th grade mock election. This is much more impressive though!
Eh, in 2004 Libertarian Jerry Kohn got 2nd place in the statewide mock election throughout all Illinois schools for US Senate right behind Barack Obama and in front of Alan Keyes. Kohn promised to end government monopoly education and still got more than 25% of the vote in the whole state, more than Alan Keyes. If only our adults were as honest and smart as the kids.
IIRC, in the 2005 Parsippany Hills HS gubernatorial mock election, the Socialist Party’s candidate (Tino Rozzo) ended up coming out ahead. However, I don’t remember how many candidates they had on the ballot in their election.