On Wednesday, Nov. 2, students at Lincoln Southwest High School and across Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) participated in an online student vote. 

According to the LPS website, the student vote was a mock election that gave students the chance to see the same ballot that local voters will see on Nov. 8. 

Students voted on candidates they wanted to be the new senator, state governor and on two policies. The first policy, initiative Measure 432, would instate the use of voter IDs. The second policy, initiative measure 433, would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2026. 

“In my class, we discussed the candidates and policies the students would be voting on,” government and politics teacher Mr. Ryan Salem said. “It’s important for students to vote in the mock election because it helps remind them that when they are eighteen, they will have the American right to vote.” 

In total, 19, 698 students from grades 4-12 voted in the entire LPS district. 

“I thought the student vote was cool,” senior Nhi Nyguen said. “I can’t actually vote yet so it was interesting to see what adults would be voting on in the actual election.”

At Southwest, Republican Jim Pillen won the vote for Governor by one percent, in all of LPS Carol Blood won by nine percent. Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks won the vote for district one representative of the House of Representatives by one percent at LSW, and also won at LPS by eight percent. At LSW, 43 percent more students were for initiative measure 432, at the district level, 25 percent more were for initiative measure 432. At LSW, 56 percent more students were for initiative measure 433, at the district, 48 percent more students were for initiative measure 433.

The student vote has been an LPS tradition since 1992.