UPDATE: The results of the mock election have been released. The following is from an e-mail sent to all LT student accounts:

For President, the winner was Hillary Clinton with 46% of the votes.

• Donald Trump had 37%
• Gary Johnson had 9%
• Jill Stein had 3%
• Other had 5%

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For the U.S. Senate,the winner was Mark Kirk with 44% of the votes.

• Tammy Duckworth had 40%
• Kenton McMillen had 6%
• Scott Summers had 5%
• Other had 5%

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For U.S. House of Representatives, the winner was Daniel Lipinski, who was unopposed on the ballot.

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A total of 1,617 students voted in the mock election, for a participation rate of 40%.

The election demonstrated similar trends to the previous mock election in 2012: a significant democratic lead and third parties polling higher than the national average. The turnout was very similar as well; 1,690 students voted in 2012.

The scene is set: voting booths are hauled into both LT campuses, the air buzzes with nervous but excited talk of polls and debates, and lines to vote stretch out of both libraries. Sides are taken, names are thrown, and for one day your own name matters less than the name you’re about to pick.

The election isn’t for seven more days.

But on Nov. 3, LT is hosting a mock election run by the League of Women Voters (LWV). Voting will take place in the libraries before school and through second period, as well as in the lunchrooms during lunch periods.

“I think [the mock election] is important for a number of reasons,” Global Studies division chair Paul Houston said. “It’s really the application of what we teach in theory in social studies classes. When we teach about democracy and forms of government and citizenship, unless you apply that, we’ve accomplished really nothing.”

Matthew Kappas ’17 is working with the LWV through LT’s National Honor Society chapter to organize student volunteers to run lunch hour voting.

“I think [the mock election] is very important because the majority of students at LT cannot vote, but are very involved in keeping up with the candidates and the election,” Kappas said. “It gives all the students who can’t vote the opportunity to have a voice.”

The ballots and booths will be the same as used in real election, Houston said. Through the cooperation of the La Grange area LWV, the Cook County Clerk’s office is lending each campus 20 official voting booths, and providing accurate digital copies of the ballots to reproduce for students.

“We are getting tremendous cooperation as we always do from our voter registration drives, our mock elections and other initiatives from the LWV,” Houston said.

Similar to the last election in 2012, LT’s mock election will cover this year’s national executive and legislative races: president/vice president, U.S. senator from Illinois, and U.S. representative from Illinois’s 3^rd congressional district. However, the voting booths will not be open all school day this year due to the clerk’s office requesting the booths back by the end of the day.

“That restriction may hurt us in that effort, but I hope we get as many [students as last year] or more”, Houston said.

Despite this restriction, Houston has high hopes for the effects of this mock election on the student community.

“Obviously you might assume as someone who’s been working at a high school for 27 years, I think that high school students have incredible value,” Houston said. “If this mock election makes them more comfortable with and more likely to participate in the first real election for which they’re eligible, I think that’s a huge accomplishment and a benefit.”