Students at St Mary’s School in Cambridge are holding a mock election in the run-up to the American Presidential election on 6 November.
The election at the city’s only girls’ school will mirror the US system with each form being allocated a State and corresponding Electoral College votes according to its size. The winning candidate in each form will take all the available Electoral College votes.
Campaigning has begun in earnest with each candidate and her campaign team producing posters and leaflets at a prodigious rate.
They are also bidding to win over undecided voters with well-crafted speeches on their vision for America and the world for the next four years in a whole-school husting.
The candidates are both Year 13 A-level Government & Politics students. Alice McWilliam has taken on the role of Republican challenger Mitt Romney and Cathy Thomas is the incumbent Democrat President Obama.
The campaign is really starting to warm up as the candidates seek votes and the whole school is becoming familiar with the vagaries of the American Electoral College system.
Peter Richards, Head of History and Politics, said: “The enthusiasm and interest in the election generated by the candidates and their campaigning teams has been remarkable and I’m confident that come 6 November the whole school will have a real understanding of how the Electoral College works and why States such as Ohio and Florida could be critical to the outcome”.