Former Republican President Donald Trump won a massive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday in quadrennial mock elections held throughout Maine’s public high schools.
The exercise in American civics is only for educational purposes, of course, but the winner of the mock elections has historically stood a very good chance of winning the actual vote on Election Day.
[RELATED: Trump, Theriault Lead in ME-CD 2: Politico/Axis Poll…]
Of the more than 140 schools that participated, Harris received only 40.8 percent of the vote (8,892 total votes), while Trump won 52 percent of the vote (11,329 voters) — an 11.2 percent margin of victory for the Republican.
The Secretary of State’s office called the race after receiving the results from 115 schools and 21,775 student voters and found that significantly more students supported President Trump than Vice President Harris.
Unlike some real elections in the past, the Maine Secretary of State was able to count all of the votes on the day of the election and declare a winner.
The mock poll did not distinguish between congressional districts for its presidential poll.
Maine allocates its four Electoral College votes differently from most other states. Whichever presidential candidate wins the most votes statewide receives two Electoral College votes, while the candidate who gets the most votes in each of the two congressional districts is awarded one Electoral College vote per district.
Historically, Maine’s statewide total has favored Democratic candidates; however, Maine’s more conservative Second Congressional District has favored Republican candidates.
The result in 2016 and 2020 was that Trump received one Electoral College vote from Maine’s Second District, while his Democratic competitors received the two statewide Electoral College votes and one from the First Congressional District.
Although Trump won the mock election by a wide margin, the liberal U.S. Sen. Angus King (I) dominated his Republican challenger, Demi Kouzounas, the former chair of the Maine Republican Party.
King, who has been involved in Maine politics since before many of the mock election voters were born, drew 43.3 percent support compared with Kouzounas’ 23.9 percent.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D) also won the mock election for the congressional seat she currently holds, although by a slimmer margin than King’s. Of the mock election voters, 40.9 percent backed Pingree, compared to 38.6 percent who backed Republican challenger Ronald Russell.
The contentious race between incumbent U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (D) and challenger State Rep. Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent) was much closer, with 48.8 percent supporting Rep. Theriault and 49.3 percent voting for Rep. Golden.
Maine’s student mock elections have a good track record of accurately predicting the outcome of the national election.
In 2016, when Hillary Clinton was polling far above Trump in national polling, he beat her in Maine’s mock election by 1.3 points.
In 2020, when President Joe Biden defeated the incumbent Trump, Maine’s students voted in favor of the Democratic candidate, who went on to take the presidency.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="32214 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=32214">7 Comments
5days left to freedom
There’s hope for the future
This must be tweeking the left!.. Surprised Bellows let the truth be known.
Thank goodness Maine has students who can think and decide for themselves!!!!
Now it is up to the adults to get out and vote to REMOVE those who have sat in Washington for far too long and done nothing except receive a pay check from the American citizens.
Voting for Trump will insure America is saved and a Better, Brighter future awaits our future generations…
This gives us hope for the future of Maine. Children are sensible and have simple common sense when they aren’t brainwashed by leftist kooks.
Ask yourself, what’s the opposite of MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.???.
The kids know more than the “adults”.