2016 TMS/TSMS Presidential Election - Mr. Rose, Mr. Tignor, and Mr. Windler

Since this year is an election year, it was TMS’s plan to have a school wide election. The students learned about the election process first. We created lessons teaching students about the electoral college, the structure of an election, bias, fact vs. opinion, and laws pertaining to the election process. Teachers, also, provided students with facts about each candidate. Our hope was that each student would make his/her own decision and try to eliminate as much bias as possible.

We held the election November 2nd. Each team in TMS/TSMS was considered a state with a certain number of electoral votes going to each team. These electoral votes were determined by the population of each team (state). There were 538 possible electoral votes. This is the same as the national election.

All students that were present that day got to vote in the election. They voted using (portions of) samples of real ballots used in the 2016 election. Veterans Commission Board of Lincoln County helped man the polls and helped point the students in the right direction. Once each student received his/her ballot, he/she voted and cast their ballot into an official ballot box provided by our local voter’s registration office. Also provided by that office was 1400 “I Voted” stickers for each student to have after voting.

After the voting concluded, teachers tallied up the votes. The students were informed of the results through a video created by Mr. Tignor of TSMS with graphs of each team's voting numbers. This was on the Friday before the election, so the students knew how the school voted before seeing the results.

Our students learned about the impact and importance of making informed, educated choices as it relates to our country’s future and the students’ future. Most students were excited and opinionated with their decisions. It was a fun and educational experience for the students and teachers.

Presidential Election Results Video