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Dylan Parnham B6
Media:
Throughout the entire 2016 election cycle, the media played a huge role. One of the most interesting roles the media played was the amount of publicity Donald Trump received was a record high, and so much that he managed to spend a lot less than the average amount spent on elections. I believe that this was due to some of his (some say hateful) rhetoric which the media ate up like a buffet. I personally think that it was pretty impressive how little Trump had to spend on advertising compared to other candidates in previous elections and his competitor, Hillary Clinton.

Public Opinion/Trends
Many factors played in this election  and a big part was the polls. A lot of the time, Clinton was leading by multiple points and Trump ended up winning in the end. I believe that this is an important topic to note due to the fact that Clinton was talked up so much due to her polling lead but in the end lost. One time this happen was when Reagan ran for his first term. He was losing in the polls by large numbers and won in the end.

Political Party Functions/Platforms
This election year allowed the party platforms to change drastically, mainly with the democratic platform. Bernie Sanders had huge support across the U.S. which had a huge impact at the DNC. This forced the DNC to adopt more far left/socialist party platform ideas. I thought that this was was interesting to see how much a candidate's views can change a platform even though they lost in the primaries. The platform for the GOP also changed due to Trump being an outsider and not part of the "Washington Machine". Many GOP frontrunners said that many of his principles were not conservative and did not fit their agenda.

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Jayson Artz B6
Liberal and Conservative Ideology

One of the biggest issues that was talked about during this debate was the question if mayors should have to run under a certain political party. Chris Carver believed that they should have to run under a political affiliation because it shows the values that each candidate has when it comes to government. Carver is a registered Republican and believes that the small businesses in Carson City should dominate the local economy. Bob Crowell, the other candidate believed that running under a political party for mayor should not be required. Crowell is a registered Democrat and supports large government funding for roads and renovations to downtown Carson City.

Media

This debate was the largest attendance wise for a mayoral debate. There was a group of about 100 students and faculty members. The debate was recorded and posted live on social media and different websites. Many more people tuned in to the broadcast online especially on social media. The media allowed for the public to get more access and knowledge about both of the candidates and instead of blindly voting, they had more opportunity to align with a different candidate for good reason. Media allowed for more exposure for both of the candidates and raised awareness for voters.

Political Party Functions/Platforms

Though the mayoral position is not required to be affiliated with a political party, this does not stop the candidates from standing firm on certain issues. Mr. Crowell said in the debate that we should rely on the government heavily when it comes to education and roads. Crowell believes that government should fund college and that they should pay for freeway and highway systems. This is a democratic view. A plus to not having to run under a political party is that neither Mr. Crowell or Mr. Carver have to appeal to a broad amount of people. They can develop very personal and unique platforms based off of personal interests not just party interests. This allows more freedom and a more honest candidate.

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Public Opinion and Trends

The mock election ended a day before the actual election on November 8. It consisted of many high schools, including Carson HIgh. Since the majority of children in high school can not vote due to being under the age of 18, the mock election provided as an public opinion poll. It was able to form a public opinion of the high schoolers who participated. It was considered a trend, from the results of the 2016 Mock Election that most of the younger population, ages 18-25 wanted Hillary Clinton, and that the younger population tends to vote more democratic.

Liberal and Conservative Ideology

Everyone that participated in voting was either liberal or conservative in casting their votes. Liberals would have voted yes on the ballot question asking about increasing gun safety laws. I am more conservative so I did not vote yes, I voted no. However, results of the mock election proved a more liberal stance for the all the ballot questions.

Media

Media played a major role in the election this year. A lot of news sources, cites and social media sites are biased and lean more liberal than conservative. Media had a big role as gatekeeper in this year’s election because Donald Trump came up a lot more than Hillary Clinton did. Even though Hillary CLinton chose not to appear in the media as much, new sources were all about whatever Donald Trump did and was saying. Over social media sites, like twitter, posts were often on the left side of the spectrum bashing Trump, and influencing the younger generation.
Mackenzie Cartier B4

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Watching the 2016 Election

Campaigns/Elections

On election day, it marked the end of the campaigning. During the general election, voters casted votes for the president and vice-president. By the winner-take-all system, the candidate with the most state votes receives that state’s electoral college votes. In this election, there were many swing states.  Republicans swayed many swing states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Furthermore, Nevada, which is a bellwether state, was won by HIllary Clinton; therefore, it marks one of the few times the state’s results did not follow the election results.

Public Opinion/Trends

In the previous elections, states who voted Democrat, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania, aligned to the Republican party. One possibility is of Trump’s appeal towards middle class workers. In addition, leading up to the election, many polls favored Clinton to win the election. However, Trump’s win displayed an incorrect prediction by the polls. Later on, public outrage ensued after the elections results. Usually, urban areas voted Democratic while rural areas tended to vote Republican. Therefore, protests and riots would occur in urban populated cities because of upset towards Clinton’s lost.

Political Party Function and Platforms

Many voters choose minor party candidates who gained a lot of votes than previously. Jill Stein and Gary Johnson gained about 10% of the popular vote. While they did not receive any electoral votes, their presence on the ballot allowed Trump or Clinton to receive electoral votes in close state elections. Republicans gained the supremacy in the presidency, senate, and house. Thus, the United States does not have a divided government due a Republican president and a Republican congress.

Christian Okamoto B4

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Liberal/Conservative Ideology
Liberal and Conservative Ideology plays into effect multiple times throughout the Election, especially on Election night. As I watched the election, I saw States that had a population who the majority had either Liberal and Conservative ideologies give its vote to the candidate that correlated with that ideology. For example, the state of Texas a well known reputation for always being independent and a "Small Government" mentality, because of that conservative ideology that it's citizens carry, the state voted for the candidate that correlated with it, the Republican candidate Donald Trump. Another example is the known Liberal state of California who like Texas gave its votes to the candidate that had the Liberal Ideology, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Public Opinions/Trends
Prior to the Election, many polls, surveys, and credited political experts as well as the the general public of the United States of America all thought that Hillary Clinton had it in the bag and that because her path to the 270 votes was way much more attainable than Donald J.Trump's path. That is why it was such a shock when Donald J. Trump ended up plowing through Clinton's blue wall and turning blue states to red. The trend that claims that the majority of Donald Trump

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Katy Liemandt

Media:

In the 2016 election, media was a large component, although it was not done traditionally. Both candidates relied heavily on social media, such as twitter to help boost their campaign. Donald J Trump dominated the social media and news stations for month on end prior to the election. Whilst watching the 2016 election, I went back and forth between fox and CNN to see the contrasting opinions. While Fox seemed sure that Donald was going to win, CNN was reluctant to commit to the idea that he could possibly win the election. Especially since CNN was very optimistic that Hillary would win, the contrast in between each news station was large. There was a definite media bias.

Modern Democratic Theories:

Donald Trump is a member of the the elite society, for he is a wealthy and powerful man even without his political power. Prior to election night, this could be seen through his attitude and campaigning, for he was in complete control of his funds. Also, Hillary Clinton could be classified as an elite member, for she

Is a wealthy and powerful member in society.

Public Opinion and Trends:

After the election many people were shocked with the outcome. Many people were expecting Hillary Clinton to win the election, for it showed that in the polls. MAny of her voters were overconfident which probably lead to her losing the election.

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Liberal/Conservative Ideology

Liberal and conservative ideology is apparent by the way liberals and conservatives vote on the sample ballot questions. On the ballot questions, liberals would most likely believe that people should be prohibited from selling or transferring firearms to other people unless that person receives a federally licensed background check first. Liberals would also vote in favor for people to cultivate, possess, and consume certain amounts of marijuana because liberals believe in an active and highly involved government, so they would not feel that it was unnecessary for law enforcement to spend their time regulating gun rights and marijuana consumption and growth.  Conservatives would vote the opposite for these because they believe in a more strict interpretation of the constitution and therefore would be against background checks before transferring firearms because they believe in the second amendment right to bear arms. Conservatives would be against passing the marijuana law because they believe government should be less involved in citizens lives and would not want law enforcement spending their time regulating these laws.

Public Opinion/Trends

In the mock election the most polarization occurred in the presidential candidates because the third party candidate Gary Johnson had a lot of votes and Hillary Clinton ended up winning. It became clear that the stereotypical demographic that high schoolers are liberals was accurate by the high number of votes for the more liberal candidates. A consensus was seen over the nevada law of raising gas prices to fix the roads when the law was not passed and the majority of people voted against it. The mock election would be considered sampling because it gained feedback from a set group of people that still had polarization. The mock election fulfilled the predicted outcome and echoed the voting trends of high schoolers which tend to be more liberal by the outcome of Hillary Clinton's win. Giving students the opportunity to participate in mock elections gives them high efficacy, awareness of peers views, and awareness of state issues.

Campaign/Election

Part of the Campaign and election process is public opinion polls and trying to predict who will become president. The use of mock elections in high school could be seen as a public opinion poll, young people's votes in the mock election could be used to aid in predicting how the younger generations will tend to vote. Public opinion drives the political process and all political strategies are derived from public opinion, although mock elections only include small numbers of high school students it gives students high internal efficacy when they are included in election processes. State control of elections also plays a large role in the campaign and election process, the mock election reflects the personalized issues of each state. These issues are pressing issues for the state, of large concern, or have gained popularity and need to be addressed. In the mock election the specified questions for Nevada were about the legalization of marijuana, gas tax to fix roads, and gun rights.  Federalism allows states to make laws specific to their needs, this is a large part of the U.S. government and its success.

Lauren Hudak, B4

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Media:
Prior to the night of the election, the media gave the public a sense that Hilary Clinton was going to take the election by a landslide. The media, with most outlets leaning to the left, gave the impression that Trump had little chance to have success in the swings states of the election. However, the media was shocked throughout the night by Trump's success in states that tended to vote Democrat in past years. Eventually, Trump was declared the winner to much of the media's surprise and since then, the public has seemed to trust the media's predictions less.

Liberal/Conservative Ideology:
Trump won the election through America's changing view away from a liberal and energetic national government, to a more conservative and limited national government. Many voters were fed up with Obama's term that resulted in little change in the economy and foreign affairs. Trump campaigned to the conservative rural, and working class urban, voting populations with his conservative views of government. The election also reflects America's overall conservative ideology, as Republicans take the House, the Senate, and the presidency.

Constitutional Principles:
In the case of this election, popular sovereignty can be seen as an important idea. Popular sovereignty is the idea that the government is created by the people and bends at the will of the people. While watching the election fold, I could only think about how no matter what the media says, it's the voters who control the elections. The people have to vote for what they believe in, not what the media says will happen. Trump's campaign strategy worked wonders on the white and older citizens as they showed up in huge amounts to vote for him.

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2016 Election Night
Public Opinion/Trends:

On the night of the election a lot of hopes were going for Hillary Clinton due to media supporting her side of the election, who persuaded many individuals that she is going to be our next President. As the night progressed the Electoral College votes began to increase for Donald Trump, which is due to him gaining the mass majority votes from whites. According to CNN exit polls Trump gained 57% out of the 71% of white votes, and in our country their is over 63.7% of white, thus gaining a major advantage in the election.

Liberal/Conservative Ideology:

Donald Trump won this election because of his very strong conservative views. Some citizens of our country were not very happy with Obama’s impact on our country, so they decided to switch to vote for Trump because they believe he can actually make a change because of his conservative claims he has made. As for Clinton she was a woman who shared some same ideas with Obama meaning that citizens did not want a liberal president anymore because of the mistakes made in the past.

Constitutional Principles:

Popular Sovereignty is a huge advantage on this election because it dominated by what the people wanted. Clearly Donald Trump was stating that he is going to do all of this changes when he is in the office, but he needed to persuade the people, so he gave some interesting statements to make our citizens go wild to gain him votes. So since political power is given by the people he got many votes from numerous people (mainly caucasian) letting him win on election night.
Tony Magallanes
A3

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2016 Election Night
Public Opinion/Trends:
On the night of the election a lot of hopes were going for Hillary Clinton due to media supporting her side of the election, who persuaded many individuals that she is going to be our next President. As the night progressed the Electoral College votes began to increase for Donald Trump, which is due to him gaining the mass majority votes from whites. According to CNN exit polls Trump gained 57% out of the 71% of white votes, and in our country their is over 63.7% of white, thus gaining a major advantage in the election.

Liberal/Conservative Ideology:
Donald Trump won this election because of his very strong conservative views. Some citizens of our country were not very happy with Obama’s impact on our country, so they decided to switch to vote for Trump because they believe he can actually make a change because of his conservative claims he has made. As for Clinton she was a woman who shared some same ideas with Obama meaning that citizens did not want a liberal president anymore because of the mistakes made in the past.

Constitutional Principles:
Popular Sovereignty is a huge advantage on this election because it dominated by what the people wanted. Clearly Donald Trump was stating that he is going to do all of this changes when he is in the office, but he needed to persuade the people, so he gave some interesting statements to make our citizens go wild to gain him votes. So since political power is given by the people he got many votes from numerous people (mainly caucasian) letting him win on election night.

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Campaigns and Elections:

Being at the community center on November 8th gave me a clear view of how the election system works. I got to see, first hand, the role of states in the election and one of the last steps to the presidency in action. First off, this event showed me the true scale that is needed by states and the nation as a whole to pull off the election. At the community center alone, there were probably 50 volunteers working and well over 100 voting machines. To imagine that every city in the nation had to have a similar setup as the one I witnessed (and some bigger cities have multiple) amazes me because of the amount of effort it requires. There are so many people involved in making the election happen that you probably don’t see. Second, it was interesting to think that what I was watching was the culmination of hundreds of hours and millions of dollars spent on campaigning all coming to an end. One by one, each citizen came in to make their vote, concluding the massive scale of electioneering that had led up to the moment, and by the end of the day, the country would have a new president. Overall, this opportunity showed me the grand scale of elections and the one of the final stages to becoming the president.

Media:

The media played a huge role in this election as a whole. Because the race was so close, the media likely had a profound impact on who people voted for. Most of the news set their agenda on the negative points of the candidates and kind of ignored the actual policy of the candidates. Along with this, the 2016 election had massive amounts of fake news on internet social media. Being at the community center, I got to witness how the media had influenced each voter. Though I couldn’t know who voted for which candidate, I did know that the media did in some way affect how each individual would vote. In addition, there were even various news outlets at the elections, channel 4 news and the nevada appeal showed up. This goes to show how much of a presence the media has in elections.

Constitutional principles:

Popular sovereignty is the idea that the government is created and sustained by the consent of its people. Since I was at the elections, I got to see exactly this. It is the people, the voters that came in, that decided what public policy will be put in place, however, the president is still being debated as the popular vote had a different result than the electoral college vote. Additionally, I also got to see a little bit of federalism. All three levels of government, local, state, and federal had to work together to total the votes and decide on a president.

Stuart McElhany A5

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Political Party Functions and Platforms:

When choosing which candidate to vote for many new voters issues are what concern them the most. So, knowing whether they are liberal or conservative and their views on the issues each political party has on its umbrella platform is starting to be more and more important. This is why the political parties are having to expand their platforms so much to make them be as moderate as possible, because most americans have relatively moderate opinions

Public Opinion/ Trends:

As a teenager I am more liberal than I will ever be in my life. However, I cannot vote in the regular election due to age, but in the mock election more younger people vote which has most likely skewed the results Democrat I am also part of the new generation that cares greatly about single issues and not parties. The majority of the younger generation was very attached to Bernie Sanders, however when the super delegates at the Democratic national convention were able to influence the vote enough to, in the actual election, shoot themselves in the foot. These new first time voters saw Hillary Clinton as crooked and would not vote for her.

Media:

The majority of media is at least leaning liberal. This has undoubtedly pushed many voters towards the democrats and away from Donald Trump. This was shown in the results of the mock election and in Nevada overall as a state, both went democrat. This election the media has been extremely unhelpful, it has caused the election to be an election of two evils. The only question left up to the voters is who is worse? The media has caused many voters to believe that both of the presidential candidates are extremely flawed and this has caused much confusion for voters. Voters have an added focus on the issues the two candidates represent because they no longer want to see the candidates as people, only vehicles for political agendas.

Nico Salm B4

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Working at the Community Center for Election Day. -Omar Casildo A5

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Working at the Community Center for Election Day. -Omar Casildo A5

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Public opinion/trends:
Working at the community center during election day, I got to see how the election process is handled first hand in a election center. I volunteered at the community center and got to see the process and the steps that are taken to vote for the candidates. There were campaign posters and people with their preferred candidates  signs outside the community center because you can’t have any type of political propaganda inside the voting center or else they will ask you to change if you want to vote and if not you will be escorted out. This is to ensure that voters that have not yet decided on a candidate will be influenced by other candidates that are wearing any political propaganda for their candidate or for the opposing candidate. The process to get people to vote wasn’t as complicated as i would’ve thought I just had to direct the incoming voters to the line where they will check in and receive their voters card where they will go to a voting booth and vote for their candidates. As i was standing on the entrance way and guiding people to the line i noticed that not many young people came to vote, especially not as many first time voters came as i would’ve imagined. There were a lot of old people that came and that observation confirms the trend that younger voters don’t vote as much as older voters.

Political Party Functions and Platforms:
Working at the community center I saw many people try to wear political propaganda involving the different ideologies and different candidates so that they can influence the undecided voters. The function of the party especially during election day is to try to influence the undecided voters to go for them instead of the opponent. With the help of their supporters, the political parties can try to influence the undecided voters so that they have a chance to gain a difference in the election which could make them win or lose. There were also some voters that tried to come into the voting center to influence the undecided voters inside of the center so that their candidate can win or to change the opinions of the voters.

Campaign and Elections
At the community center, the election process was shown and i got to witness it first handed because i got to volunteer during election day. At the center i saw the different people and their different jobs so that the process to get people in, vote, and out goes as smoothly as it can. There was an officer and a worker in the entrance to lead people to the line where they can sign in and receive their voters card. Once they get their card they can go to an open booth and vote for their candidates. Once they are done with voting they go to turn in their card and they can leave. The different people at the different sections are there to help them so that everyone has a job so that there are no problems. There was a help center where people went to ask questions and sometimes people went there just to ask questions instead of voting. There was one person who overlooked everything so that everyone's doing their job

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Campaigns and Elections

The hosting of a national election is a function of each individual state and as such it requires time, efficiency, and, of course, personal to keep the process running smoothly. Due to the federal government leaving the funding of election day up to the local and state governments, resources are much more difficult to acquire. The individuals who volunteer their time during polling are absolutely critical to the election process, not only in smaller cities, such as Carson City, but are just as and much more critical to the conduction of elections to keep the process running smoothly and efficiently.

Modern Democratic Theories

The conduction of an election requires many people to staff and run the entire process. Individuals who hail from all different social, economic, religious, cultural, racial, ethnic, political, and other backgrounds all must work together in an effort to ensure that, whether the outcome is favorable or unfavorable, that the election process takes place. This is an example of the modern democratic theory of pluralism, which is defined as people from diverse group affiliations coming together and cooperating as a collective to ensure that the outcome which results will benefit all parties concerned as best as it can.

Enlightenment Ideas

The ideas of the enlightenment philosopher, John Locke, specifically his claim that all men have the right to life, liberty, and property, which would eventually be written into the Declaration of Independence as “life, liberty, and property,” are very applicable to the running of the election process. Each person that votes and participates in the election process, including the citizens who volunteer to help run the polling station, are exercising and encouraging their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Their actions encourage others to participate in the election process and exercise their inalienable rights.

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Campaign Election

Its that time of the year again. The 2016 presidential election has been already declared their presidential-elect as Donald J. Trump.I wasn’t able to participate in this year’s election; however, I was able to vote on the mock election, which was eligible for all gov. classes. Within the ballot we were able to choose our candidate to be president respectfully with their vice president together on the ticket. Each presidential candidate from each party was on the ticket with equal acknowledgement; although, in some states some states the Green Party’s nominee wasn't on the ballot as an honorable pick due to her lack of media and press time. Gary Johnson however had a more chance to be picked in the ballot due to him having more acknowledgement and more press time on the news.

Political Behavior

According to the results of the mock election, Hillary Clinton was the obvious winner; however, the fact is the results aren’t technically precise compared to the actual election. Due to the fact that most of the individuals who voted within this mock election were within the young adult age; which in fact according to data individuals within this age are greater to vote democrat. However in the real 2016 election most people were within a more mature age; data showing that most people within this age would vote republican.

Media

Within this mock election and the real deal; media was a huge factor on it. Most of the press time was on president-elect Donald J. Trump. Which in fact help him due to the media using his outrageous words for more views. Believing myself this would decrease popularity of Trump; however, it increased more the chance of him being chosen on the ballot. Media using Donald Trump's outrageous speeches as an agenda setter allowed more acknowledgment positive or negative.

Larry Garcia-C
A5

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Media- The media would go on to have a big and major impact in this election as the clear and obvious winner should have been Hillary Clinton and not Donald Trump according to media polls. While watching this election I had noticed that many of the swing states and even “Democratic Wall” (Great Lake) states were very close and went to Donald Trump when the media had said those states were going to go for Hillary. This showed that for many people like me who believed Hillary was a shoe in to win the presidency, were very wrong due to the media making it seem as if that's how the election should have gone.

Public Opinion/Trends- In this election I had noticed that some of the usual trends tended to stay the same while others changed. This could be seen as the polls in the election showed that women tended to vote for Clinton (Democratic) and white males tended to vote for Trump (Republican). Some trends did change as Hillary lost many of the previous Democratic states Obama had won during his elections such as Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Political Party Functions- The political parties had an enormous amount of influence and impact on the 2016 Election. Of course watching the election I knew that there was no chance of a third party candidate winning the presidency, but noticed that the third parties were affecting the outcome of the election. This could be seen because both Gary Johnson and Jill Stein were getting added number of votes of up to 4%. This changed the outcome because many of those states were within a 4% difference from the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. This means that many of those swing states had the potential to go to either candidate, but the third parties could have made it so that it went to the other candidate instead.

Ramon Rojas A5

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Campaign/Election:

I was an integral part of the election cycle this year by voting.  Several weeks before the election I was approached and talked to by several democrat volunteers asking for my vote in the election.  This is an example of states being in charge of the election process as all of the volunteers were state based.  I was directed to the polling stations and given dates for both early voting and times for election day.  Throughout the last two years I had been influenced by the campaigning of various party members and had decided which candidates I wanted to vote for and which questions I would vote yes on.

Popular Sovereignty:

The presidential elections are the most textbook definition of popular sovereignty we have within this country.  As a legal citizen with full rights I had a chance to have my voice heard by casting a vote for who I wanted to lead the country.  This basic constitutional principle states that the people have the power, and voting is our primary way to have agency in the government.  Even though I did not have all of my ballot choices win the will of the people was what prevailed with the exception of the presidential election of course, where the electoral college allowed for the candidtate with less votes to become the president.

Political Party Functions and Platforms:

Political Parties had a heavy hand in my experience with the election.  My voting decisions on candidates was largely based upon the platforms that had been made by the political parties.  Additionally the party functioned as a major role in helping me to vote and giving me agency, like I stated above several party members helped me to get to polling stations, I was offered a ride to go and vote if I needed one.  The party was an outlet for my voice to be heard within the government by voting.

Henry Sturm A5

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Danny Dudley A5

Media: I spent election night watching the election on a variety of different news sources. It was interesting to see how different media networks displayed the same information differently. When FOX news would announce that Donald Trump had won a state, other networks, namely CNN and MSNBC, would say that the results are still pending. This shows how different news networks have different political opinions, and that their opinions affect how they express news. Even the anchors were able to express their bias. Reporters on MSNBC, for instance, sounded very somber and solemn when it became apparent that Donald Trump was going to win. One reporter even said, “Dear God” when it was announced. This is a clear example of media bias.

Public Opinion/Trends: The election is an example of the change in public opinion. Many states that are normally considered Democrat states voted for Donald Trump this year. One example is Michigan. MIchigan is a state with lots of factories and factory workers. They most likely feel that they have not been helped enough by the Democrats, so they are turning to the Republicans for help. This is an example of individual people changing their political opinions to meet their needs.

Conservative Ideology: Trumps campaign was about supporting business. This means removing government restrictions on businesses, and making an effort to bring american manufacturing back. Without government restrictions a smaller federal government will be necessary. This is an example of conservative ideology, as conservatives want more limited government, and less government interference in their lives.

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Media: The media influenced voters views and opinions through different sources such as twitter, buzzfeed, edmodo and various news sources. This mock election was a representation of the actual election. The amount of coverage for different issues created more chatter among the voters and possible moved voters to vote differently.

Linkage Institution: The mock election acted as a linkage institution because it showed average students how important their vote really is. Each student can clearly see what the population of the student body voted on because the results were shown in percentages. It also sparked interest in the actual election and encouraged students to partake in their right to vote.

Popular Sovereignty: Since the people/students determined the outcome of the mock election, this was a good example of popular sovereignty because the people decide who the future president will be and what each state will become. In the mock election most of the Carson High School population voted yes on the marijuana question which almost mirrored the results for the actual election.
Kaylee Gordon A5 11/16/16

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Sarah Higuera A3

The mayoral debate at Carson high School

Modern Democractic Theories:

In the state of neveada declaration of party memebership is not neccesscary to run for office.Since declaration is not nessacary to run for office, that enforces pluralism becuase it forces enforces diffrent party members to work together. Both canidates even had the same opinion on legalizing marijuana. Though there was an incident of hyper-pluralism when one of the canidates released the information of what political parties each one is registered under after disagreement on an issue.

Constitutional Principles: Though the canidates each had a unique stand on each issue, they both had ideas on how diffrent projects  and things would work to benefit the community. Each one talked about how working on the city was important and how diffrent roads or improvements would work, these ideas are examples of trying to appeal to voter which inturn turns into popular soveringty. Though this had been my first time to any political event relating to Crason City I felt as if maybe I could have an influence in how the city is worked, which also brought in personal popluar soveringty. Whoever was going to win the election would have to deal with checks and blances as well. That might not be as grad as the federal level though the mayor does not have complete control of the city.

Political Party functions and Platforms: Though part membership is not nessacracy to run, it may still inlfuence how the mayor will change things if they get elected. Bob has been a registered democrate, meanwhile his running mate Chris is a registered republican.

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Trump Rally

Constitutional Principles

During Donald Trump’s final rally in Nevada he discussed many things emphasizing his point that the country is designed to serve the people and operate on their consent. This constitutional principle of popular sovereignty was the basis of Trumps argument as he would repeatedly argue that taxes should be limited. This goes in hand with his conservative ideology, as conservatives believe its popular sovereignty to not be burdened by excessive taxes. Additionally, Trump claimed that the constitutional principle of separation of powers has been violated. He said that if he is elected president, he will “Drain the swamp”. Trump discussed that currently the United States government has become too interlinked, leading to excessive power in the hands of only a few individuals which overall has caused for the corruption in the system as the branches of government have in part been voided.

Enlightenment Ideas

The country of the United States is founded off of the enlightenment ideas of many great thinkers and philosophers. Donald Trump played off of attacks on Hillary for a majority of his rally, saying that she has violated the Rule of Law. He said how in her email scandals and many other cases, has in part been above the law even though what she had done was illegal activities, but she has not been punished. Trump used these points to state how you should not vote for someone who is a criminal and has served the government for 30 years, accomplishing little, while defying the laws of this nation.

Constitutional References

In the constitution it states that the government has the ability to create necessary laws in order for the country to operate, known as the necessary or proper clause. However, as Donald Trump and many other conservatives believe, this should be limited and shall still abide to the constitution’s principles and what the founding fathers intended. Trump discussed how Obama and the Democratic Party have begun to issue such laws that they deem necessary, but are however infringing on the constitutional rights of the people. He gave the example how Democrats wished to further restrict the gun rights of the people deeming it fully constitutional and necessary for national security. However, Trump argued that this is the second amendment right of the people and under no circumstance shall be infringed or limited.

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Daniela Munoz A5

Media and Enlightenment Ideas

As I arrived at the polls, many United States Citizens had been lined up to vote as early as 5:30 a.m. I overheard many conversations where the people talked about their rights and how they would like to keep their rights. Many of the other volunteers agreed with the people but they did not express or define who they voted/ or were going to vote for but they did respond to the idea of expressing and keeping their natural rights. A particular action that caught my eye, was when the volunteers registered a citizen who was going to vote for the first time they cheered for them and wanted the rest to as they applauded and exclaimed “Woohoo! First time voter!”, the fact that they came to express their rights was good enough for them and it made them happy. There was a voter who was very spirited and wore shoes with the American, white pants, and a blue shirt with the saying “God bless America” she also showed off her nails decorated with the symbols of campaign she was going to vote for. There were also many voters who sported hats and shirts with the catchphrases of who they preferred. Each voter that sported an item of a campaign they supported is biased to the other and vice versa but the the seller of this product is commercial selling items of a particular campaign for profit sources.

Campaign/ Election

After the polls were closed, votes had to be finalized. However during this Hillary Clinton remained ahead with the Popular Votes and Donald Trump with the Electoral Votes. But that was not enough for Hillary Clinton to claim the Presidency, because of the Electoral College Donald Trump will be president. The votes of the Electoral College will be finalized December 19, 2016 and Donald Trump will be the official president-elect.

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Public Opinion/Trends

After the mock election, we had the ability to see the results. In contrast to the results of the actual election, Hillary Clinton won in the mock election. This reflects the voter trend that younger voters tend to vote more liberal. This is opposite of the results of the actual election in which Donald Trump won, reflecting the trend for older people to vote conservative as well as the trend for older people to participate in elections more than younger voters. The overall results of the mock election were mostly liberal, reflecting this voter trend in younger voters.

Campaigns/Elections

The mock election is a good example of the role of the states in elections. The state government has implemented the mock election in the high schools in order to encourage more young people to participate in actual elections. Because of the low voter turnout for younger voters, the states have implemented programs such as this to try and get more young voters interested and exposed to participation in our political system elections. By doing this, the state could help to increase the participation of young voters in elections in the future.

Political Party Functions and Platforms

On the ballot for the mock election, all party candidates that were running in the election, including third party candidates, were represented. This is reflective of the approach to appealing to younger voters that many political parties are taking in order to tap into the large voting block that young voters represent.

Chloe Dodge

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Liberal/Conservative Ideology

In the mock election for 2016, both liberal and conservative ideologies were exemplified by students across the United States. By voting in favor of gun restrictions, students revealed their preference for an energized government that would interfere with the constitutional rights of American citizens. However, students all across Nevada demonstrated their favor for a limited government by voting against the three cent gas tax for repairing and maintaining roads.

Public Opinion/ Trends

The voting patterns for the presidential candidates followed traditional voting patterns of the younger generations favoring liberal ideology with Hillary Clinton’s win. Furthermore, popular public opinion was seen in the legalization of marijuana. Today’s younger generation has demonstrated its favor for the legalization of this drug because of their desire to use it, while much of the older generation voted to legalize it out of hopes that the jails would no longer be filled with marijuana users, and rather with criminals that are inflicting more harm on others than themselves.

Media

The mock election did not predict the critical election that took place on November 8th. Instead, it predicted the outcome that the media had been talking about for weeks prior to election day. The gatekeeper role that many of the liberal media stations took on was pivotal in the election because the security that Clinton supporters were provided with in her inevitable victory ultimately lead to her defeat. Clinton’s potential voters did not show up to the polls because the media had told them that she had the election won by a landslide, while Donald Trump’s supporters swarmed the polls in hopes of giving him every possible chance of winning. Had the media advertised accurate information, the mock election may not have been so heavily influenced in Clinton’s favor, and would have more accurately predicted the critical election that was about to take place. However, students demonstrated how heavily influenced they are by the media through the results of the 2016 mock election.
Valerie Sue Meyer A3

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Constitutional Principles

The constitutional principle of popular sovereignty becomes a filter of the mock election of 2016, because it allows for people in high school who are underage to become aware of the system of voting. Also, the people who participated in the mock election will later know how their say affects the results of the election by voting in the actual election in future instances. The people who may not have registered in time would have also experience voting as well as receiving results.

Liberal/conservative Ideology

When voting on issues within the state or the country, the people may choose between the two ideologies that best fit the person’s values. The people who voted in the mock election, however, may mostly vote on a liberal standpoint, because the younger a person is, there is more of a chance of that person having a more innocent thought about society. The actual election of 2016 may have a drastic difference to the mock election due to the fact that usually, more older people tend to turnout to voting more than younger people, because older people tend to be more conservative over liberal. In general, the mock election may mostly be swayed left, but still gives students the idea.

Media

The media played a big role in the mock election as well as the actual election. Playing as a linkage institution, the media acted as a way to connect the people of the country to its government by providing the people information about the candidate. However, the mock election reflected Clinton winning, because the biased media conveyed Trump as being conservative which would then be a better choice for the older population, while, Clinton was conveyed as a better choice to the younger population and the mock election.

Antoinette Rose
A5

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Media and Liberal/ Conservative Ideology: Throughout the election night, the media both reported results and projected results. I watched both CNN and FOX. CNN represented the liberal ideology and FOX, the conservative ideology. Because of this, CNN favored Clinton and FOX favored Trump.The projections of the channels were different because of spin. CNN began with assurance of Clinton’s win and continually projected the different ways that she could win. FOX began with different ways that Trump could win. As the night continued, CNN continued to project Clinton’s win, despite incoming results showing the opposite. CNN’s spin altered the election results to show who they wanted to win. As soon as results came in from Ohio and Florida, FOX practically announced Trump’s victory. Their spin of the election results may have affected actual voting. Voters waiting in lines across the country saw the news and the different projections from news stations may have changed their vote because of Trump’s reported lead. This is an example of agenda-setting in media.

Campaign/election: Election day is one of the last steps in gaining the presidency. An important distinction of the night was the division of the popular vote and the electoral college. Throughout the night, Clinton remained ahead with the popular vote, and Trump ahead in electoral college votes. Despite Clinton obtaining the popular vote, Trump will be president because of the electoral college. The electoral college will vote on December 19. Trump will then be the official president-elect.
Emma Breeding A5

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Modern Democratic Theory

After watching the various presidential debates and the extensive media coverage on the 2016 Presidential election, I have gained a great amount of insight on the modern democratic theories. I saw throughout the election how each of the political parties had to work together to gain supporters and votes. Pluralism had to be practiced by each of the parties in order to reach a common goal such as gaining support in a specific state. It could be seen in each of the presidential debates the hyperpluralism that was displayed between the two candidates on issues such as taxes and healthcare. Elitism was also present in the election as the two main candidates were in the extremely wealthy class making it easier to be involved in politics.

Liberal/Conservative Ideology

During the election, various liberal and conservative ideologies were also present. Throughout the debates and through each of the candidates platforms, the stances are clearly evident. For example, the stances of Hillary during the debate included her being pro-choice, being anti-war, and greatly supporting women’s and minority rights. Many of Trumps stances reflected a typical conservative ideology such as pro war and anti immigration. It was extremely interesting to see the varying ideologies in each of the candidates platforms how each of them aligned with either a left or right side. Through seeing which states voted for each candidate, I was able to connect what was learned about typical voting patterns in certain areas of the United States to the 2016 election and also see which patterns had shifted. For example, the midwest voted mainly republican which corresponds with that area being more independent with a less of a need for government intervention.

Media

Throughout the months preceding the election, the media was responsible for covering and highlighting stories related to each of the candidates. It was extremely easy for the average citizen to get caught up in all of the stories and articles that wouldn’t necessarily be entirely truthful. The media can either be extremely liberal or conservative or anywhere in between. The stances of each of the news stations can have a huge impact on its viewers as many will be swayed by what they hear on the media and see posted on social media. Through watching and listening to the majority of the population make their decisions based on what they hear on the media makes me realize the importance of having high internal efficacy and a thorough understanding of government so that one can make an informed decision when it comes to voting. One must learn to take what they hear in the media, such as polling data that may or may not be confirmed yet, and sort out for himself if it is credible or not.

Jiavanna Wong-Fortunato A3

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Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS)

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Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS)

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Liberal/Conservative Ideology

In the process of enlisting into the United States Army, my recruiter began speaking with me about government. Being in the military, one should be very concerned with the government's choices being that you are the one being called upon to enforce them. My recruiter and his commanding officer are both very conservative as they were saying that the protesters in different cities should not be burning flags because brave men and women fight for their right to exactly that. They also believe our government should be more aggressive in the middle east. These are republican, conservative ideals because they believe in a strong well funded military.

Constitutional Principles

The powers of our government are separated into the different branches so the branches have to work together. This does not seem to be the case when we look at our history in foreign wars. Article 1, section 8, clause 11 states that “Congress shall have the power to declare war.” Despite the constitution specifically stating this, Presidents have carried out action that seem fairly similar to war. The Vietnam War was waged but Congress never declared war in this case. Congress responded by passing the War Powers Resolution which re-enforced the constitution by saying the only time the President could use the military is when "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." The resolution is still ignored by Presidents like Obama who says we are going to use “kinetic military action” in the case of a violent Libya. This is concerns soldiers because at MEPS we take the oath of enlistment where we swear we will “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”. Yet we let the commander and chief trample over the document we swear defend when he sends us to go fight in wars.

Public Opinion

Once you complete the oath of enlistment, you are a future soldier of the United States Armed Forces. The armed forces fights our wars and it takes the support of the public to win a war which is exemplified by the Vietnam war. The public was largely against the war and because of that we had little progress made. If the public were to cry out again in another wartime situation we could see those same results today. As a future soldier, I would like the country to support me in a time of war even if they did not agree with the politicians that deployed me.

Logan Mead A3

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Public Opinion/Trends

The general opinion of the election before the results was that Hillary was going to win. As the night went on, and the majority of the states turned red we realized this was not the truth. The countless polls and what seemed like the majority opinion of people were wrong. The Reagan Democrats were once again reignited in the great lake area, since Trump showed his sincerity to help those who work in those closing factories. He went against what seemed to be the normal trends of those states.

Media

The media also relied heavily on Trump’s attics to gain the attention of the public to increase views. The media seemed to be heavily against Trump and the Republican party which yet again showed that the election seemed to have Hillary in favor. As media acted as the gatekeeper, it kept out a lot of the stories about Hillary, but gladly let in Trump’s. The media was highly liberal and therefore had the agenda of exploiting Trump for money to get him not elected.

Political Parties

The democratic party relied too heavily on polls and thought Hillary was a shoe in and since they were so dependent on money from people they had to follow their demands. Whereas since Trump had plenty of money, he could decide his on journey and therefore get the low efficacy of the states near the great lakes to help him win. The agenda of the political parties were yet again polarized even more since Bernie’s agenda promoted a more socialist approach and Trump went even more extreme through his approach to immigration, which this caused a lot of people to not be able to support either of them and increased the undecided voter and third party voter immensely.

Sophia Waite B6

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Participating in the mock election within the high school we were able get an idea for what was on the ballot and what the majority of the country was voting for.

Public Opinion trends:

After looking at the results political trends presented themselves where young people tend to vote more democratic or liberal. Due to Trump’s particular strategy in attracting attention throughout the nation, 97% of high schoolers predicted that Clinton would win because they sympathized with the minorities that were verbally targeted by the republican party.

Media:

This was a major component in how students voted seeing as how the majority of teens run their worlds based on their accumulation of knowledge from the media. Media shaped how students voted because a lot of the news coverage that was aired was circulated around Trump, his comments, and his look on the future leading to a dislike of the targeted people throughout the media showing.

Campaign & Election:

Major issues were represented and brought up during this election that shaped voter turnout. The  issues being immigration, the trade deficits, and marijuana, large amounts of the population including those unable to register to vote, or high schoolers, participated for a major issue in particular, Marijuana. The candidates, given their old age, focused a lot on appealing the the youth of the country as well as independents. Independents make up the most of the younger generations given that our education levels is not that of the older and that being said teens were split between the two candidates and “more than 450 high school and college students from 19 states and more than 30 schools set out to predict the winner of this most unprecedented presidential campaign.”

Cristina Saenz A5

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Constitutional Principles: By voting in this year’s election I contributed to our Democracy. In order for popular sovereignty to remain a key principle in our government, the people have to show up and exercise their right to vote. Citizens must vote, even though a single vote cannot change the election. For the people to be in charge of how they are governed, they must vote and voice their opinions. Because of popular sovereignty, the people vote in the president and two senators from each state to represent them (17th Amendment). We vote for various positions of power ranging between the different branches of government so that there can be separation of powers and not one person or branch has total control over governing the country. This election the Republicans won the presidency, the senate, and the house. Despite this, republicans still don’t have total control thanks to checks and balances. States still have liberal judges and liberal mayors/ governors wherever they were elected to help uphold the best interests of their people.

Media: Donald Trump’s campaign has done a great job using social media to benefit his campaign. Personally, my opinion of Trump has been influenced from the information I have learned through social media. Hillary had most of the media on her side. The majority of the media sided with Hillary and it showed before the election, as she was estimated to win by a landslide by most media sources. Issue framing is the technique the media used to try and shape the election is their favor. They took some things Trump said and shaped their words with great bias to make him seem very unfavorable to voters. Much of the media also avoided topics related to Hillary Clinton’s scandals, this is an example of gatekeeping.

Modern Democratic Theories: The was some pluralism during the election. Both Trump and Hillary came to agreement on gay rights. Although Trump didn’t voice his opinion on the topic very decisively, he is pro-homosexual rights as well as Hillary. There is an example of hyperpluralism between Trump and Hillary- Trump is pro-gun rights and Hillary is pro-gun control. Some believe the election was rigged. Even though there are overwhelming sources that claim there is no possibility the election was rigged, some still believe it was. They believe in an Elite theory and that some powerful and wealthy individuals could have rigged the election with their authority.

Jordan Aikins

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Campaign & Election
Constitutional Principles
Modern Democratic Theory
Larry Garcia-Castillo
A5

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Rule of Law:
I was going 60 mph in a 45 mph zone. According to rule of law, everyone must follow the law. I was clearly not by going 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, which is why I received a speeding ticket. I have to go to court in January because of this incident.

Bureaucratic Theory:

Bureaucratic theory is the modern democratic theory that displays of the hierarchy structure of government. Because I was speeding, the police officer was able to make a decision whether or not I should receive a ticket. This made him have a position of power over me because he was able to decide if I should be ticketed or not. While normally neither of us would have power over one another, as we are both just citizens, because I was breaking the law and he has the power to enforce it, he was then raised above me in power.

Separation of Powers:

Getting a speeding ticket also showed me separation of powers working in our local government and how each branch has their own role. Speed limits are legislated. So, the legislative branch created the law that it is 45 mph where I was driving. The executive branch enforces the law. This is what the cop was doing when he pulled me over and gave me a ticket. Last, because I have been assigned court for receiving a ticket, I will also witness the judicial branch who interprets the law. They will decide my penalty and how much I may have to pay for my ticket based on what they think the law says.

Skylar Glock A5

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Zachary Frewert A5
In the Mock Election, students were able to get a proper feel for what voting is like and what was on the sample ballot, and what post of my peers were leaning towards in their unique political standings.

Liberal/Conservative Ideology
Through the presentation of different questions, people were able to select answers that they preferred, with no right or wrong. Some people have their own ideologies and have ideals that lean more towards their preferred political party. The values given at the end of polling people's opinions showed that people were split between the candidates, most being liberal and very few aligning with other than the major parties.

Public Opinion/ Trends
Peoples opinions vary greatly based upon their unique political socializations. The mock election for the high school students was biased and left for it was done by students, a younger class, whose typical political behavior is liberal.Though each person has many different life experiences, they followed the common trends that are likely and predictable for younger voters.

Campaigns/Elections
The mock election represented the campaign between the four possible candidates: Donald Trump Jill Stein Gary Johnson and Hillary Clinton. These candidates were represented by those who voted and had the same political ideologies of them. The mock election showed the predicted possible outcomes through the use of a pie graph of the results on each question. The results showed that most people at the high school level are left and hence voted along the same lines as the representative Hillary Clinton.

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Campaign/Election

On election day, I participated in the election process by working at the voting center here in Carson City. Voting is the last step in the candidate's campaign and is the main factor in who becomes president. I got to see the full effect that the campaign had on voters and their actions, as I saw people wearing Trump shirts which were not allowed in the voting center. Outside the voting center, I also saw people with boothes depicting their party’s candidate and sending out a message to vote for them.

Popular Sovereignty

The United States is based on the will and consent of the people and the U.S's elections are the same way. With people voting, I saw citizens actively participating in their civil duty and forming the government the way they saw fit. I personally directing a majority of the people coming into the voting center from 12 to 4 and I saw many different kinds of people who varied in age, sex, and ethnicity. I also noticed how everytime a new voter had registered, that the workers would all shout enthusiastically, "First Time Voter!", showing the people who were new to their civic duty.

Media

Before the day of the election, the media framed the issues of both candidates in partially biased ways and heavily impacted the outcome of the election. The media was heavily divided, especially for candidate Donald Trump, and stories had revolved around any new controversial thing that he had said. Overall, the media was focused on Donald Trump which greatly helped him win Presidential status in the office.

-Italo Da Silva, A5

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Jayden Dejoseph A5

Media:  Media has been a huge contributor in this election due to the spread of information through all areas of media including, television, social media, and other forms of news that spread info about the election.  Media had portrayed that the election would be predominately one sided and that Trump did not have much of a chance.  On election night, the media proved that this was not the case.  Trump was winning states left and right and ultimately won the election.  While flipping through FOX, NBC, CBS, and ABC during the election, there was obviously bias between the two candidates.  Most channels favored Hillary and gave this idea that Trump was racist and sexist while FOX was more alongside trump and portrayed Hillary to be the villain by saying she was corrupt.

Public Opinion/trends: The public opinion was obvious throughout the election process and that opinion was that Hillary Clinton would be our next president.  However, this proved not to be the case because while Clinton received the popular vote, it wasn't enough to overcome the amount of electoral votes Trump received.  A comical representation of the public opinion was shown on a saturday night live episode where people are confident that Hillary has this one "in the bag" but become less confident when Trump appears to be ahead and Hillary needs to win the rest of the states to make it close.  This appeared to be a common trend during the election.
Modern Democratic theories: A theory that I believe played a huge roll during the 2016 election was the Elite theory because Donald Trump, a self-made millionaire paved his way into becoming the next president by paying for tons of advertisements including commercials to get his ideas out there and bag on Hillary's corruptness and scandals. In addition to Donald Trump being an example of an elite theory, George Soros was also an example because he paid money out of his own pocket in order to get a recount in certain states. This costed him millions of dollars.

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Campaign/Election: Every four years the candidates take part in a number of debates. They are able to chose how many and this year Clinton and Trump chose to do 3 debates this election cycle. Presidential debates are one of the many steps to presidency and can influence people's votes based on what the candidates say. All the debates were held in different locations in order to expose as many people as possible to the candidates opinions.

Enlightenment Ideas: The candidates argued over the 2nd amendment and if their should be restrictions on being able to buy a gun. Trump said that its the peoples right to own a gun and it is sated in the social contract (constitution).Trump believes that getting to own a gun is a natural right. This shows that the enlightenment ideas are still used today and affect the way people think about the way government functions. Both candidates also mention the separation of power and how if elected to office they would maintain this enlightenment idea.

Liberal/Conservative Ideology: Both candidates show cased their party standpoints on issues. One of the issues they addressed was abortion. Trump was very clear that he was pro life in most situations but would have to leave it up to the state governments. This is a very conservative view that most republicans have. Clinton said that the Roe vs. Wade case allows for abortion and says it is a constitutional right to be able to choose what a woman does with her body. This is a very liberal view that most democrats believe in.

Sophia Ruedy A5

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Campaign/Election: I voted for the first time in Nevada, and I noticed on the media coverage of polling places across the country were all using different ways of recording information. In Nevada, we use a computer generated system to record our votes and send them to the national data system. Other states do the same but the instruction and local candidates are different. I participated in the most critical part of the democracy: government picked by the people. Even though the electors ultimately decide, it's still the people's job to first cast their votes.
Constitutional Principles: One of the principles is popular sovereignty, and that is what I practiced when voting as my right as a citizen. Each citizen in each state over the age of 18 got to vote based on their beliefs and values, whether that be conservative or liberal. This also relates to the power of Republicanism, another value the country was founded on. This means that free and fair elections must be held all over the nation. Montesquieu held the idea that a true government meant voting in officials.
Modern Democratic Theories: The theory I found to be most relevant when voting in the election was obviously bureaucracy because each party or agency (Republican or Democrat) had their own reasons why citizens should vote for their candidate. This also was true when issue-based voters also cast their votes for the election. Being from a certain moral valued family or group of people, those individuals would choose candidates and stances on issues specific to their ideology. This made it obvious in the polls because certain issues, like marijuana, were more likely to get voted in to legalization that not to. Not that this showed what kind of state Nevada is as voter base, but it showed data based upon voter choice.
Arianna Schmidt, A5

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Sara White

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Brian Pittenger

Media: In this election is particular the election and everything leading up to it was covered on just about every angle. While the election was playing out, I flipped through various television media outlets. These includes CNN, FOX and MSNBC. It was very interesting to watch how each of these different news sources interpreting the unraveling election. Oh course MSNBC was hopeful almost the whole times because they thought a Hillary win would be inevitable, Fox on the other hand saw the momentum Trump was gaining and held on to it.

Liberal/conservative: During the election there were both liberals and conservatives in the same room as me, and not they took the view point of the media aligning with their views. My dad thought that Hillary was going to win and it was just a matter of how much she would win by. On the the other hand my friends dad saw Trump gaining momentum and had faith that he would end up winning. Also after the results came in and the decision was final I saw a lot of liberal take to the internet and threaten to leave the United States. Not unlike the SNL skit with Dave Chappelle.

Political party platforms/roles: The role that the democratic party played during the time of the election was to console Hillary Supporters after it was announced that Donald Trump won the election. Tim Kaine also told people before the results were even in that “it was going to be a long night and that people should just head home now.”

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Media: Leading up to the election the media was insistent that all the polls showed that Hillary Clinton was going to win. So to celebrate the first female president, my family invited some family friends over to watch the election. Needless to say this did not go well. During the election we watched multiple channels. This was interesting because FOX and CNN did not always call states at the same time. FOX was consistently quicker to call the states that were close. This shows how the media affects how people view the political landscape.

Campaigns and Elections: The election obviously demonstrated how campaigns and elections work. Watching the election I observed the rallies for both candidates, the electoral college, and a concession speech. This also demonstrated how the President-Elect can be chosen by the electoral college but not win the popular vote.

Constitutional Principles: Now that Trump was elected according to the Constitution he only has power over the executive branch. This means many of the campaign promises he made, he does not actually have the power to keep. Any legislation will have to be passed by the Senate and the House. This is called the separation of powers.

Rachel Rombardo
A5

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Participating in the 2016 High School Mock Election

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Participating in the 2016 High School Mock Election

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Brandon Annabel

Media -  In the days leading up to both the Mock and Real Election, media constantly gave some sort of different spin on both candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. As gatekeepers, the media let in some polls about Hillary being in the lead, or some polls about Trump's popularity, trying to give the impression perhaps one was winning over another. The results of the Mock Election, however, were quite different from the real election, perhaps showing that the media had different effects on the youth and the older voting demographic.

Modern Democratic Theories: Donald Trump is a millionaire with tons of money to back up both his entire campaign and his advertising within the campaign. His self-funded campaign is an obvious example of the Elitism Theory,

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The media
The media had a heavy influence in the mock election. Social media has major influence over high- schoolers, and since Twitter hates Trump, high school students hate Trump. With the different stories  that the media produces, and then showcases on social media teenagers receive lots of biased information. The media made false claims on Trump's behave, claiming that he was gong to "punish" women for having abortions or run every illegal immigrant out of the country.
Public Opinion/trends
The mock election was designed to teach young American's about democracy, and since most of the younger demographic tend to vote on the liberal side of the political spectrum so it makes sense that Hillary won. Hillary won by over 40%, and for once the results of the mock election did not match the real elections results. The voting trend continued in the selection of the Nevada senator in they way that the democratic candiate, Cathrine Cortez Masto won the popular vote.
Liberal/Conservative
In the 4 questions on the ballot, every singl on of them won on the liberal side. Students believed that marajuana should be legalized and they believe that you should have to get a background check before buying  a firearm. This liberal ideology can be linked back into the young demographic leaning more on the left side.
Brie Fuson

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Liberal/Conservative Ideology

The two candidates in the general election for the 2016 National Election came from both sides of the political spectrum. Hillary had a liberal ideology. She believed that the government should have an energetic role the lives of its citizens. Some of her campaign promises included increased taxes for the rich, continually funding planned parenthood, and encouraged the passage of gay marriage on the national level. The other candidate in the 2016 National Election was Trump. He had a conservative ideology. He believed that government should have a limited role in the live of its citizens. Some of his campaign promises included tax cuts for the wealthy and increased spending for the military to combat terrorists.

Public Opinion/Trends

Most of the electorate who showed up to vote in the 2016 election was the elderly who tend to be more conservative which contributed to the victory of Trump. Although Hillary tried really hard to appeal to the young electorate, she did not succeed in activating them which contributed to her loss in the election. I also noticed that my opinion on the election was influenced mostly by my parents, an agent in political socialization.

Media

The media played a huge role in the 2016 election. It seemed that Trump did something or said something worthy of media attention everyday. As a result, Trump’s name was in the media more often than Hillary’s. Even though Trump’s media exposure was mostly negative, it got his name out into the public which helped him win the election.

Christy Krahn A5

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Media- Throughout history, the media has played a major role in shaping the results of the election. The media chooses which stories get covered and which bias they take on it, if any. This gatekeeping aspect of the media can influence the paradigms of American voters. In the actual election as polls were being changed by the minute, different news cites represent how differing ideological views change how the election is perceived. For example, Fox news showed throughout that Trump was likely to win whereas MSNBC expressed faith that Clinton would pull through. I was able to watch the election due to media coverage on TV.
Public Opinion/Trends- Public opinions and trends shape the election and its results. Before the election, polls were released that showed who was most likely to win the election. While in past years polls are almost always accurate, this year was way off in predicting the results.  Most, if not all, polls showed the Hilary Clinton would win the election.  However, when the election results came out on November 8, Americans across the nation were shocked to see Trump leading the polls by gaining support from states in the electoral college.
Constitutional Principles/Popular Sovereignty- Popular sovereignty was the reason the whole election took place at all.  Popular sovereignty is the right to free and fair elections and is protected in the Constitution.  People go to their local polling stations and vote for the presidency which is how the president can be elected.  The president needs the support of the people voting in order to win.

Darby Griffin A5

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Media - The election was heavily influenced by the media as seen during the 2016 Presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.  Throughout the night, I flipped between MSNBC, CNN, and Fox news to see the varying reactions between the newscasters.
Public Opinion/Trends - While, even though Fox's ideals differ greatly from other news stations, most of them were prepared to see Trump lose.  As state results came in though, most of the people were shocked when Donald began to win.
Liberal/Conservative - As the results were finalized, many people had very different reactions. The liberals as well as some conservatives were very upset, while most conservatives were excited for the future.

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Josie Share

Media- The media heavily influences the election. I switched between watching NBC and FOX news, and it showed me how the media can sway their viewers opinions on the election. For example, when some states were clearly won by Donald Trump, NBC would say “it is too close to call.” However, FOX news was more realistic, saying that Trump had most likely won the state. Also, throughout the night of election results, each station was talking negatively about the opposing candidate. NBC frequently brought up Trump’s racist and sexist comments, while FOX brought up Hillary’s email scandals.

Public Opinions/Trends- This election did not represent the public trends very accurately. Almost every poll said that Hillary Clinton was guaranteed to win, and most people believed it, including myself. However, when Donald Trump gained Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida, it was clear how inaccurate the polls were. This most likely resulted in Clinton’s supporters being too confident and not coming out to vote, and Clinton’s team to stop working so hard to campaign, etc. However, the miscalculation of the polls drove Trump supporters out to vote, making a huge difference in the election’s turnout.

Modern Democratic Theories- Many people believe that Donald Trump is an “elite.” He is a wealthy, powerful member of society who now holds a huge amount of governmental power. The same could go for Hillary Clinton, as she was a wealthy Secretary of State and candidate for president. The belief that the small wealthy class controls the government could be observed in the election.

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Rule of Law
The law for motorized vehicles on the water in Lake Tahoe is that everyone born after 1987 must have a boating license, however, I wasn't aware of that. While I have natural, unalienable rights, I still have to follow the law or else it will be enforced. I did not have a boating license and was operating a vehicle on the water, without a fire extinguisher onboard. The law was enforced by boating control and I was written a ticket.

Judicial Review

Loose constructionist

Andrew Trejo
A3

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Rule of law: I got a speeding ticket on an indian reservation for going ten miles over the speed limit which was twenty-five  for being in a residential area. The law states that going one mile or  more over the speed limit than posted is breaking the law.  The law was enforced by the police officers who pulled me over and gave me ticket and a court date. If I wouldn't have broken the law i wouldn't have been given a ticket or court date but I did so i got punished for it.

Modern democratic theory-bureaucratic theory

The officer pulled me over and wrote me a ticket but he wrote the ticket only to the indian tribe court and he decided he wouldn't report me to the dmv.The ticket was for seventy-five dollars to the tribe and had to be paid by a certain date. The officer was an example of bureaucratic theory because even tho he should have fined me with the dmv he wrote me a indian tribe ticket so i would pay their fine and not the dmv fine. He shaped the policy his way so, making me drive all the way out to the indian court.

Constitutional principle-judicial review

I went to court for the speeding ticket and was found guilty. While in court the judge decided what would happen so i just had to pay the seventy-five dollar fine and this was example of judicial review because he determined whether or not I went against the constitution. There was no way getting out of it because their was a speed limit sign I saw that said twenty-five and I was going ten over.

-Bernardo A3

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The Mayoral Debate at CHS

Political Party Functions and Platforms
At the beginning of the debate, the candidates introduced themselves and declared the party that they supported. For example, Mr. Crowell declared himself and liberal and Mr. Carver declared himself conservative, and, in some issues, they clearly stood on opposite sides of the spectrum. For example, when time came to discuss the 3 cent increase in taxes on vehicle fuel, Crowell fully supported it claiming that this state does not have any fuel tax, just sales tax; thus proving his liberal stance on the subject. On the other hand, Carver opposed the tax. He argued that there had already been placed a tax on fuel in the past and that this didn't work, so he believed that this tax wouldn't work either. This was the main issue that truly made their platform stances stand out more than the rest because you can clearly see where they stand on the political spectrum and how they defend that position.
Enlightenment Ideas (Social Contract)
When the candidates were discussing their issues, I noticed that they very much based their platforms on what the people wanted. Most of the statistics that they included in their arguments were of people, mostly teens, that had informed them of their opinion of what should be done about that specific issue. This shows that there is a peaceful understanding between what government can do and who they do it for. This is an example of Enlightenment Idea of Social Contract supported by Rousseau. He stated that this was key to having a peaceful government because it demonstrates the idea that people govern the people. We are necessary in the prosperity and the success of our government and without our input, they wouldn't know how to help us or what to do to do so.
Modern Democratic Theories (Hyperpluralism)
Hyperpluralism occurs when 2 groups come together, but cannot reach an agreement. The subject that showed the least signs of compromise was number 2, in reference to the new freeway bypass in construction downtown. Mr. Crowell argued that businesses downtown would be negatively affected and that people have to go  "to not through" downtown Carson. It's the most touristic part of out city and people need to visit it more often. However, Mr. Carver asserted that it wasn't government's job to provide business for downtown Carson City. There have been millions of dollars invested since 2005 to help generate interest in our town and it didn't work; therefore we need that bypass to reduce traffic accidents. At the end of each of their statements, neither of the candidates showed any signs of wanting to at least compromise their opinions on this issue. They were both pressing the issue to completely different ways and after all was said and done, there was no compromise whatsoever on this matter.

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Political Party Functions and Platforms

The country was divided on the night of the election because half of them have liberal ideologies and the other half have conservative ideologies. Both parties get to vote because of the first amendment, which gives the people freedom of speech. The people have a say in who gets elected because the country is based on popular sovereignty, meaning that people have power. Most of the Democratic party voted for Hillary because they believe in a strong central government, environmental protection, and abortion. Most of the Republican Party voted for Trump Because they believe in a limited government, gun rights (2nd amendment), and a strong military.

Public Opinion/Trends

The election did not follow many trends because people voted for the other party that they affiliate with. Although Hillary won the popular vote, Trump won overall because some swing states favored him more. Many Latinos voted for Trump, and a significant amount of votes went toward Gary Johnson. If these votes went toward Hillary, then she would have won the swing states, making her win overall.

Modern Democratic Theories

Before the election, the Democratic and Republican parties were at hyperpluralism because they wanted their candidate to win and they hated the thought of the other candidate winning. Right after the election, the Democratic party was furious at the results since they were sure that Hillary would win, keeping the parties at hyperpluralism. After a few months, people will settle down and accept the fact that Trump is president and then reach pluralism.

Kacey Lopes A3

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The Media
The media had a very big impact on this election. The media focused on keeping the public up to date on the election results. Some websites and t.v channels which are biased showed that the results in some states were to close to call when they knew that Hillary did not gain that state which gave people a false hope and might have changed people’s opinions on what the outcome of the election might be. I was switching back and forth from Fox, CNN, NBC, and BBC which gave me all different kinds of views such as a liberal view, conservative view, and a view that gave the actual facts.
Public Opinion/Trends
This year's election did not follow the public opinion and trend. All over the internet everyone was saying that Hillary was going to win by a landslide. Certain polls before the election were said to have predicted the outcome of this year's election but many of those were wrong like the school's mock election. Most of the people that participated in the mock election voted for Hillary so when the results came back and Trump won the actual election everyone was shocked.
Liberal/Conservative
Liberal and Conservative views were shown throughout this whole election. Hillary and her party had very liberal views while Trump and his party had conservative views. On election day people were able to express their views as well by voting who would express their type of views. At the end of this election Trump came out on top and the Liberals were all very upset since Hillary did not win.
Jaycie Roberts A3

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Filters: Campaigns and Elections

Political Party Functions and Platforms

Public Opinion and Trends

For my Second Quarter Civil Participation, I took part in watching the Presidential Election of 2016. I watched the election through MSNBC and kept watching until about 11:00 PM. Throughout that time, I saw Trump take several states, including Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Florida.
Public Opinion and Trends
The reason the watching the Election 2016 connects with Public Opinion and Trends is that I got to see how the public voted all across America and the voting trends that came with it. One trend that I recognized that a lot of the states that voted Republican were in Midwestern America. This is shown in the result map below. It makes sense, since the rural areas are mostly in the Midwestern states.
Campaigns and Elections
This connects with the Election 2016 due to the fact that the current campaigns lead up to this election. The fact that this is an election automatically connects this filter to this event. We have been studying campaigns and elections in class for the whole year, so it makes sense that this filter would be used for the Presidential Election.
Political Party Functions and Platforms
This filter connects with the Election 2016 due to the fact that the all of the things the political parties have done have lead up to this election. The functions of the political parties all come together to succeed in winning the election, and the platforms are part of that. This is why political parties function the way they do.
This is a learning process that I have enjoyed. I am glad that I had this class during an election year.
-Jesse Session A3

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Media

The media played an important role in the elections because they favored Clinton and they stated she would win by a landslide making it seem that Trump was the underdog. The media would add spin and they’d prefer Clinton tremendously, the whole nation expected her to win with ease according to the media. The media was also bias  when they said Clinton had already won the election even before it started. They didn’t credit Donald Trump but they also affected Clinton because a week prior to the elections, her case on the stolen emails was brought to light again. They didn’t respect Donald Trump but they did keep him on the spotlight which may have helped his cause since he was always in the public eye, the help just wasn’t direct but they did help the public know who Trump was and ultimately he gained election.

Political Party Functions and Platforms

I voted for Hillary Clinton due to the fact that she was the nominee for the Democratic party. I didn’t strongly support her but since she was the Democratic nominee, I decided to vote for her since I voted among party lines. I support the Democratic party and liberal views which helped influence my vote. Nonetheless, Donald Trump was the Republican nominee and since he had very conservative views, he lost my vote. Trump’s platform and stance on immigration highly affected me and it was a typical conservative view so I did not vote for him despite his win over Clinton.

Constitutional Principles

The constitutional principle used in the election cycle was popular sovereignty. Donald Trump could not win if he did not have the people’s vote because in popular sovereignty the people have the say. Government can not rule without the people’s vote and they are the ones that put the candidate in office. Therefore, even though the media did a good job in favoring Clinton and undermining Trump, the people are the ones who hold the power. Subsequently, even though I voted for the Democratic party and I was totally against Donald Trump, he won because the people wanted him there and they voted to have him in power of Clinton.

Jaime Saldana A3

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Cristian Lamas
Filters: Modern democratic theory
Media
Public opinions and trends
Media: Throughout the presidential election many media outlets would talk about how the campaign was going to be won hands down by Hillary Clinton this is something that we now know is not the case. Even during the election many media outlets started the evening off by saying  that Hillary was going to win major states that in the end Trump won. Showing that throughout the entire campaign the media would make statements that would lead one to believe that hillary was going to win. This may have been the reason as to why she lost because of many thinking that she was going to win made her supporters decide i'm not going to vote because she's going to win anyways.

Public opinions and trends: After the 2016 elections many took the news about Hillary losing the election so lightly. Shortly after the announcement that current president elect donald trump has won, many people began to riot. Showing that many people did not like the news that they received. These actions particularly from supporters of Hillary clinton can be seen as ironic in a way. During the campaign many Clinton supporters said that when Trump loses that they should take the defeat with grace and not overreact. Showing that a popular public opinion against Donald Trump.

Modern democratic theories: With current President-elect Donald Trump preparing to take office he has started the process of selecting those that will fill his presidential cabinet. This is an example of the Bureaucratic theory in which he is selecting people that will help him in making decisions for the country. This is his way of being able to form and shape policy based upon his needs.

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Sarah Higuera
Filters: Modern Democratic Theories, Constitutional Principles, Political parites and platforms

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Popular Sovereignty: Popular sovereignty is a constitutional principle where the power comes from the people and the government can only exist and function with the consent of the people. By giving the people power, it gives them the freedom to have a say and vote when making important decisions, decisions such as voting for the president of the United States. As a citizen it is important to vote for a leader who will improve the country and make it prosper while being a good representative when talking to other leaders. The president also represents the ideologies of the people so it is important to vote for the person with similar values.

Media: The media is a linkage institution that allows people to know what is currently happening around the world and in government. People watch the news, read the newspapers, read magazines, listen to the radio, and go on social media in order to get their information. As a voter, I watched CBS Evening News in order to watch the debates and learn about more about the candidates. This informed me about their beliefs and their future plans of how they are going to run the country.

Hyperpluralism: Hyperpluralism is a modern democratic theory where two or more groups don’t agree on an issue. In the 2016 presidential election, there were disagreements of who should’ve been president. People didn’t want Donald Trump to win because he didn’t have the political background, people thought he was sexist, and they thought he was too full of himself. People didn’t want Hillary Clinton to win because she was dishonest, she had a secret email, and she called the Trump supporters “deplorables”. The people either liked the candidate, or didn’t, so the people voted for the one they liked or for the candidate they hated least. In the end, Donald Trump won the election and the Hillary supporters didn’t appreciate it, so they rioted and called for a recount.

AnnJi Hodorowicz A3

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Watching the 2016 Presidential Election and the events after 

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Watching the 2016 Presidential Election and the events after 

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Modern Democratic Theories:

By watching the election, modern democratic theories were exposed and made clear to me.  For example,  I could see how pluralism is a big part of getting a president elected.  Each party had people working together nonstop and researching how to take a lead in the presidential system.  Kellyanne Conway is just one of the people that studied what exactly Trump needed to do to get elected.  Not only did pluralism show up in this election but the elite theory had a big factor on the outcome.  Trump was able to fund many of his events because of the amount of money he has and how much money his companies bring in.  Also, Hyperpluralism was one of the most blaring theories because that was what this whole campaign trail was about, arguing between the parties on issues and not making any steps forward with them.  Also, another example of hyperpluralism would be the events that happened after the results of the election.  Riots and people refusing to accept that Trump was going to be the next president is an example of how some people do not work together causing gridlock.

Media

The media had a big impact on the election and the outcome.  The main elements of the media that were shown in this election were watchdogs, and bias.  Because Hillary Clinton lost the election, her and her party will act as a watchdog for the Trump administration.  Her concession speech had some evidence that she was not giving up and quitting and that America should not either meaning that she will be around and making sure that the republicans abide by the rules and if they make a mistake she will be there to catch it.  Bias was present in this election in many forms.  Fox News was bias because they are more conservative and they were among some of the first to lean to the side that Trump was going to win but, for example, CNN did not want to admit that Hillary was going to lose so they stayed quiet saying everything was too close to call.

Public Opinion

Public opinion was present during the presidential debate for many reasons.  During the election, the news would switch back and forth from each presidential headquarters where many Trump and Hillary supports watched the election unfold.  When the Hillary headquarters was showing, many people were crying and very upset that she was losing.  On the other hand, Trump supporters were going crazy and they were yelling and screaming in happiness.  This shows the levels of efficacy in our nation.  The Hillary supporters would have a low level of efficacy because they would be thinking that their vote or voice did not matter because Trump was going to win.  Trump supporters would have a high level of efficacy because they realized that the way they voted was the same as the outcome of the election.

Taylor Saarem

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Watching the 2016 Presidential Election -  

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Watching the 2016 Presidential Election -  

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Media - On the day of the election as the polls starting closing and the numbers starting pouring in with numbers everywhere. As always the media became the primary linkage institution that kept the public informed on the election. Mass media poured in with information as radios, TV, and social media outlets gave their own analysis and predictions. Many being confident in the election of democratic president, as media subjectivity showed a bias towards the liberal nominee throughout the night. All media showed bias but not all towards the same candidate as Fox News a well known conservative media outlet showed throughout the night, even getter confidence in the republican nominee as the night progressed on.

Public opinions/trends - As the media raged on with predictions on the election many attributed such predictions to past voting patterns. Many suggesting that the larger female voting percentage would help in a solid presidential win. Though at the same time ignored some as they believe strong young voter and latino turnout would be key in the winning electoral votes. Yet seeming to underestimating or almost not noticing the the seemly large turnout of older voters.

Campaign/Elections - As we saw the public exercise their rights as citizens some for the first at all or at a presidential election. That night we saw the results of the of all the hard work and dedication of the presidential nominees in taking the steps in order to become president. Seeing electoral college accessible by each party. As the night progress the results were being called by the media reaching the total of 270 electoral votes seemed closer for the republican candidate as state’s electoral votes seem to fall in his favor.

Omar Garcia
A3

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media:
Each media outlet had a different perspective on the 2016 election , but stayed relatively the same. Each news station had their own variation on the nights results as time flew bye, and results came in. Media has played a big part in this year's election cycle by becoming a linkage institution to the people. The media played a vital role into what people were talking about during the night. Media was the link that kept the people informed whether by radio, broadcast journalism, or newspapers the morning after. Throughout the night my family continuously flipped between channels to listen to opposite but similar opinions.

campaign/elections:
This election cycle has been crazy to say the least. With both sides we see a great deal of hyperpluralism. On the Democratic side hyperpluralism became present when voters of the democratic party wanted Senator Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee while the majority of Superdelegates wanted Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee. On the Republican side most of the hyperpluralism came from the wild card nominee who didn't quite align with the republican party's values and platform.

public opinion/ trends:
During the election night some journalist were talking about many of the Democratic party faults that had caused them to lose the presidency. Which fall in line with many hot topics post election and majority belief. Media has played a part in being issue framers and agenda setting for this election, including post election particularly manipulating conversations being held all over media platforms. Such topics include Hillary swinging elector votes, Bernie 2020, and the only way Trump would have lost would have been to have Bernie as the Democratic nominee.

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Campaigns/elections

The two candidates for mayor of Carson City, Bob Crowell and Chris Carver, declared their political parties. As Bob ran as a liberal and Carver ran as a conservative, it shows the opposing viewpoints during the debate. During campaigning, the candidate must try to appeal to everyone other than just appealing to a few. The mayoral election also represents the presidential election as the mayor has to campaign, there are voters involved, and there are usually many different candidates to choose from.

Modern Democratic Theories

The debate between Mayor Bob Crowell and Chris Carver was civil, fair, and respectful. They both had the same amount of time to answer questions, the same amount of time to argue and key points and they even agreed on some things. This act of compromise would demonstrate pluralism. This also helps activate voters, and since the audience of this debate was primarily teens, this However, like most debates, there were some disagreements and even some interruptions happening. The two candidates couldn’t reach an agreement on the topic of the new freeway. The numbers were wrong, and they starting interrupting each other to get their points in. This would demonstrate hyperpluralism, which is normal from two opposing political parties.

Constitutional Principles

During this debate, federalism was revealed as they explained the state’s problems rather than the country's problems. For example, the discussion of marijuana was brought up. Although the federal government has their own regulations on the drug, states are allowed to declare their own regulations that the people who live in that state must follow.

Alexandria Rose

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Constitutional Principles:

In the mock election, students were able to exercise their popular sovereignty in a mock election. The mock election is a great example of popular sovereignty and to give students an insight to what it is like to have a voice in the outcome of their government. It is a great way to allow students to see what a difference they can make when the vote in the election. I was not able to vote this election so for myself and other students like me, I am sure the mock election was a great way to how popular sovereignty is incorporated in our country.

Political Party Functions and Platforms:

Political party functions and their platforms plays a huge role in every election. In the mock election, we were also given a mock ballot. This ballot allowed the students to see every candidate's political party and the main ideas they were reaching for in their campaign. When the results were in, it was evident that the students voted very split ticket, having both the democratic candidate and the republican candidate half and half; however, the high school students showed to really favor third party candidates as well. This is most likely because young voters do not always tend to fall into a major party trend and may still relate to more third party ideals.

Enlightenment Ideas:

An election follows the basis of one of the main enlightenment ideas of social contract. Citizens are being allowed to vote for their candidate of choice to govern, but in order to have protection from the law, the citizens must abide by the governing rules. In the mock election, students were able to participate and act out the rights of a social contract and choose who they want to have as an influencer in the country of the laws they follow.

Taylor Roby A3

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Public Opinion/Trends
As the results from the mock election were presented, many expectations were fulfilled of what the general believed what would happen. Hillary leaded the candidates, high school-wide, by at least 10% to the runner up Trump. This carries on the trend of young voters tending to vote democratic. The results for the local elections also favored more democratic for the younger generation as the trend shows.  Since Nevada has a great amount of old, white conservative voters, many kids rebel and create their own political efficacy and thoughts and tend to stray from their parent's political beliefs.

Media
The media played a huge role in the mock elections as an overwhelming amount of kids go onto social media for the latest news updates. Since many teens are on social media handles such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, they get influenced by the bias info they are constantly seeing. As the younger generation most likely receives left wing biased info off social media, they  continue and spread the bashing of Trump and find many ways to post about the "horrible, despicable" person he is. With social media, the whole world thought Hillary would win the election with a landslide and leave Trump behind just because of the media horse race journalizing.

Liberal/Conservative Ideology
With the new President Elect Trump and the House and Senate consisting of Republicans, the country will be mainly based around Conservative Ideologies and right wing ideas. However, the Democratic party still gets to hold the other party accountable for their actions as the losing party still continues in politics and does not leave. The mock election questions showed that students voted more liberal for gun rights, marijuana usage, and immigration stances, therefore securing the idea that the younger you are, the more liberal your views are and that equality is the major focus.

Carly Peckham A3

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Constitutional Principles:

This fall I was able to vote for the first time, and by voting I participated in the United States’ use of popular sovereignty to elect public officials.  Popular sovereignty became a constitutional principle when the Constitution was written.  The United States had recently become independent from a monarchy where the people had no voice in government.  Popular sovereignty allows the people to rule the government, instead of the government ruling the people.

Enlightenment Ideas:

During the Enlightenment, philosophers began thinking about types of government other than a monarchy or oligarchy.  Inspired by the Roman Empire, Democracy and Republicanism were discussed among philosophers.  The Founding Fathers of the United States used the ideas of democracy, the social contract, and natural rights when writing the Declaration of Independence.  These ideas are also seen in the Constitution.  By voting this fall I exercised my ability to vote in a presidential election.  This was an amazing experience because I was able to take part in shaping my nation’s government, a privilege that not all people, especially women, are able to have.

Campaigns/Elections:

Over a year before the general election, the presidential candidates began campaigning for the office position.  These campaigns are directed towards the citizens of the United States, including me, a soon to be first time voter.  As the number of candidates was continually limited, the campaigns became more aggressive and personal.  After a brutal campaign, election day came, and I was able to vote.  The election process is a linkage institution because it gives the people a voice in government, which connects us to our government.

Kara Berggren A3

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Karsen Law A3
Media: Throughout the whole election the media has been the biggest influence upon voters. Days before the election the media announced that Hillary was guaranteed to win by a landslide, which may have disappointed Trump supporters at the time, but didn't stop them from voting. The media may have actually cost Hillary winning by doing this. When the population of Hillary supporters heard the news they may have felt as if there was no need for them to vote because Hillary was already going to win. In contrast, Trump supporters did not lose their determination to support Trump on election night and that's why Trump ultimately won.
Campaigns/ Elections: After campaigning for the previous months this was the final election for presidency. Trump and Hillary were supposed to be neck and neck throughout the whole election, but just a couple hours in Trump was dominating in electoral votes. Although, Hillary was able to get the popular vote in the end, which is highly unlikely. Trump will be officially inaugurated January 20th and become the official president of the United States.
Modern Democratic theories: Pluralism: The election night was the end to an intense rivalry between Hillary and Trump. After the election the two seemed to be humble and calm about winning and losing, which was a strange action from the two. They finally came together and put away the differences that the two has had. This was very important because even though Hillary lost she must be able to come together with Trump and help serve the nation as a whole.

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Media
On election night, the media was very involved. Most people were watching the news or checking other social media sites to get the latest information on who was leading in the election. Different news sources used different tactics when presenting the latest information that night of the election. Many news channels were bias towards certain candidates. For example, Fox News tends to be more Conservative, which resulted in then being more biased towards Donald Trump. The spoke more positively about Trump in the race to win. CNN on the other hand, tends to be more liberal, so they were much more quiet about admitting that Trump could possibly win.
Public Opinions/Trend
While watching the election, I noticed the role of public opinions/trends. I think a good portion of America was very surprised to see Trump take the lead quite early on, on election night. Some sources say Trump won because of the support he had from white women. Trump also seemed to have a great number of support from white men. These two support systems are examples of public opinions/trends. Both white men and white women tended to vote more Republican in this election.
Modern Democratic Theories
The whole election process consists of Modern Democratic Theories. Hyperpluralism is demonstrated in the election process when electing a party and presidential nominee for a specific party. Not everyone completely agrees with one another on who they think should represent their party. However, in caucuses, Pluralism is displayed because after discussions, a group agrees on who they believe should represent their party. After having candidates selected for each party, the Elite Theory is then demonstrated. Each candidate and their party put money towards certain events to try and gain more votes. The Bureaucratic Theory is demonstrated when a candidate chooses their cabinet, and fellow members of the Presidential team.  Pluralism and Hyperpluralism were especially demonstrated when seeing the public's reactions to what was happening when Trump started to lead. Clinton's headquarters began to look disappointed as Trump began to lead.

Haylee Krupp A3

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Campaigns/Elections
Campaigns and elections are in the heart of national elections. A main part of analyzing the results of the elections is identifying voter trends. News sources do this through exit polls, so they can try to determine who the winner will be. Political analysts also use known voter trends to try to predict which candidate will win a certain region. I noticed this when newscasters were working to predict a certain state. In urban areas with a high minority population, they talked about votes for Hillary Clinton, and in rural areas, they assigned votes to Donald Trump.

Media
Media is essential in elections. Most major news networks were covering the presidential election. During the election, I flipped between MSNBC, FOX, and CNN. I noticed that each news network was working to appeal to its voters. MSNBC typically has a liberal audience, and that was reflected in their coverage. They frequently talked about the likelihood of Hillary Clinton winning and how she could win. On the other hand, FOX has a more conservative viewer base, so they mainly focused on how well Donald Trump was doing. Finally, while CNN is not without bias, they were the most objective, and they gave the most balance between the two candidates.
Public Opinion/Trends
Elections are supposed to be a reflection of public opinions and trends throughout America. However, this election was a little different. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote, and therefore the election. For the most part, different groups voted how they typically would. White men typically voted for Donald Trump, while minorities voted for Hillary Clinton. The difference maker in the election was white women. Typically, women vote more liberal, but in 2016, a majority re-aligned and voted for Donald Trump.

Camryn Aten

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Dylan Parnham
B6

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Shaylin Segura B6

Political Party Functions and Platforms

I got to see the physical process of voting which is organized by the local political parties but the workers were volunteers from all over the city in order to prevent bias and any corruption. As a volunteer I was given a nametag and signed an oath. As part of privacy procedures, I was also made to leave my phone in an office while I escorted people to their machines. Extra volunteers acted as monitors and sat at the end of the voting hall, their purpose was to oversee and make sure everything was running smoothly and fairly. The many volunteers acted as checks to the political system to discourage any corruption at the voting stage.

Campaigns and Elections

Voting is one of the final steps in the election, it is what all the months of campaigning leads up to. All the voters that came through in Carson City turned out to be a majority of trump voters, the same was true all through rural nevada with the exception of the largely populated Vegas who tipped the election to Hillary. Still, the number of citizens voting Trump across the country despite the negative perspective about him professed through the media, made this 2016 cycle a critical and unexpected election. This of course was very unexpected and even until the last voting moments because there is no indication of a person candidate preference. People vote because they believe their vote matters to the process and they like to show it off with the very popular, “I voted stickers” that were handed out as people left the voting room. Although the electoral college is the last step in the election process, the public voting is incredibly influential because it dictates the electoral votes.

Public Opinion/Trends
Booths for the democrats and republicans were in courthouse parking lot, lawfully a specific distance away from the entrance so as not to sway voters opinions. Any media by either party or candidate is not allowed in the courthouse and this is a strictly enforced policy. While I was there a lady came to ask a question and had on a trump sticker, she must have walked in with it and voted with it unnoticed. When it was spotted she was asked to remove it and there were no further problems. When voting for the night was finished, new reporters from all over stood outside the office for a hours waiting for the results, they were unsuccessfully coaxing workers to release early voting information. They were were attempting to be the first news sources with the news to enhance their competitive businesses.

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Noah Doddridge B6

Liberal and Conservative Ideology

In the 2016 election, the fight between liberal and conservative ideology has been a big one. While many people stuck with their parties because they shared ideals, there were also many people that had decided to break from their party and vote for either the opposite party or for a candidate of a smaller party. This shift in voting was because they believed the candidate their party has chosen did not represent their ideals. In the past, Donald Trump has stated that he is pro-choice. This idea goes against republican views and is one reason why many traditional republicans did not vote for Trump. On the other hand, Hillary had voted no on issues that would have supported pro-choice believers. This fact made many liberal followers change their  vote as well. Facts like this played a key role in this election. Both parties might have had a better chance had they chosen a candidate that fit their values more. Then again, it is possible that this is what caused one party to won over another. The ideologies of both liberal and conservative voters are concerned about which candidate will best represent their ideas and this key idea is what caused the outcome of the United States election. In my opinion, I believe that Donald Trump won because not only did he represent the values of many Americans, but Hillary Clinton did not represent many of these values. This in turn caused her to lose many votes, whether to Trump or another candidate, and caused Trump to win.

Public Opinion/Trends

This year’s election has had very much to do with the key idea of public opinions and trends. Public opinion has had a huge effect on causing many voters to make a decision because seeing the way they think other voters will vote has caused them to have certain reactions. On Hillary Clinton’s side, the public trend seemed to show that she would have an easy win. Many of her voters saw these facts and became confident that their candidate Hillary Clinton would win. On the other hand, Donald Trump voters saw these public trends and became worried about their candidate. They wanted to defy the trends and for this reason they decided to show up. On voting day, these two sides showed that their opinions would create a huge difference. Hillary Clinton’s voting populace showed that because they believed Hillary Clinton had the election in the bag, they thought they wouldn't need to show up. Although a few people wouldn’t make a difference, so many people saw these signs that too many people ended up staying home on voting day. This in turn caused Hillary Clinton’s voters to drop in key states that she thought she had won. Once again, on the other side, Donald Trump’s voters caused the election to slide in his direction because they showed up to defy the popular trends and public opinions. They showed up to fight the public opinions and this overpowered those who still believed they needed to show up for Hillary.

Media

One major factor that related to the last factor was that the media had displayed and spread news of these trends in as much space as possible. Whether it was a good or bad effect that the media had on the presidential election, it had caused a sway in the decisions of a large majority of Americans. It was hard to navigate any sort of technology, transportation, or even newspaper that didn’t contain news of the 2016 election. As soon as any sort of poll or statistic came out, the media rushed to be the first to spread the story. This attribute of the media turned out to have drastic effects of the election. The polls that had come out had showed that Hillary Clinton had the popular vote over her opponent Donald Trump. The media made sure that as many people as possible knew of this statistic and that is what spread the opinions of the public opinions and popular trends. The media sometimes has a racehorse role that causes every story to be told as fast as possible, making many people aware of things as soon as possible. This role caused the outcome of the election because many people learned that either their candidate would have an easy win or would desperately need their vote. Without the media in this election, it is very possible that the outcome would have a different result. The media made many Hillary Clinton supporters decide to stay home and this effect caused the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election

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Liberal/Conservative Ideology
When I went to the Donald Trump rally in Reno, he advocated mostly traditional conservative stances on issues. He talked a lot about enforcing our current immigration laws and making new stricter ones, which is a more conservative perspective. He also talked about building a wall along the Mexican border, another more conservative viewpoint. He believes that the role of government is to spend more money on immigration enforcement and less on environmental regulations.

Public Opinion/Trends
Donald Trump came to Reno because polls in Nevada show Donald Trump and Clinton being really close and he wanted to make a last effort to tilt the state to his side. By coming to Reno, he was trying to sway the public opinion. Also, Nevada is historically a Bellwether state. This means that whoever wins Nevada most often wins the election. Therefore, Nevada is considered an important state to win for presidential candidates. Because of this, Donald Trump made multiple appearances here throughout his campaign. He also ran a couple ads on TV trying to get people to vote for him. However, he didn’t win Nevada but he won the nation on election night.

Political Party Functions and Platforms
Donald Trump hosting a rally in Reno demonstrates the political party function of activating voters. Since Clinton supporters don't come to Trump rallies, having a rally doesn't change a significant number of voters from Clinton to Trump supporters. However, it does convince more Trump supporters to vote. One thing that Trump emphasized in his rally was to get out and vote.

Adam Flaten B6

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Allan Huntington
B6Liberal/ Conservative ideology
in the mock election we were able to see the liberal and conservative stances on the questions, we voted for a democratic theory and the other votes supported a more active government, in regulating energy and a less energetic one in drugs
Public Opinion/ Trends
the mock election also showed how polarized the voters were, the votes were more separated by issue then by party, people voted split ticket in the election, also the younger voter base voted more liberal
Modern Democratic Theory.
This mock election also reflected the ideas of hyper pluralism and bureaucratic theory, the race was close and on many issues people did not get along or make a choice together. Also we saw the bureaucratic theory in place as Hillary won the election, thanks to her position in the government she had influence and money to help win the election.

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Political party platforms
In the election, it was clear which states overwhelmingly agree with one or the other candidates parties political platform in having that state's electoral votes go to the election. Such states as New york with a high population in cities voted for Democrat, Hillary Clinton, for the public relies on the democratic platform and ideal of big government providing public transportation and food for the homeless. Other states where the political platform came through to where states like Michigan in the rust belt. The political platform that persuaded these states to vote Republican was Trumps Ideals and platforms on keeping American Manufacturing jobs in these states and not outsourcing to other countries. These states support this platform for the residents of these states are losing their  jobs when the company sends their production to Mexico.

Public opinion
Public opinion of this election was at an all time high this year. Mainly this was due to the fact that both candidates were very disliked by citizen, making this election one to vote for which candidate one dislikes least. It was anticipated that Hillary would win the election from the the gender gap with women voting for her along with the enormous amount of minority votes. Public opinion on both conservative and Liberal sides had people ashamed of their party's candidate. With Trump, public opinion was that he is a misogynistic minority hating white entrepreneur that knows nothing about running a country. Despite all this there was a "silent majority" of people who voted for Trump but never gave any indication to friends or family or the media about their intentions because of the amount of hate either candidate was receiving.

Media
The media during the election despite trying to be relatively moderate , had a liberal bias to everything. The media(cnn) in some moment stated this may go to Trump and then stat after that but Hillary can easily catch up and win. They would also state that a state that Trump was winning was going to clinton. Along with this, when Trump was in the lead for electoral votes the media was treating it like the end of the world was near with a bigot being president and another stock market crash giving me a feeling they were trying to persuade last minute voters to vote for clinton. The Media before the election was prophesying that the election would be a landslide for Hillary, leading many to believe that if Hillary was for sure going to win, using horse race reporting techniques. why should they wait in line and vote for a "sure thing". The media leading up to the election gatekeeped information making sure that all information told about Trum was derogative and all news stories and info on Hillary was positive.

Connor McRae B6

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Watching the 2016 Presidential Election:

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Watching the 2016 Presidential Election:

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Watching the 2016 Presidential Election:

Media: Throughout the entire process, the media play a massive role in regards to gathering and counting all votes while waiting for all polls to close across the country. From social media, to live broadcastings on TV, every second of every minute of the election was captured, and available to watch from any location. To be more specific, as I watched, news sources such as Fox news and more importantly CNN had frequent updates on behalf of the results and who was in the lead. As results were still coming in, the media also provided America with a good idea of who was going to win the presidency. As the night carried on, almost every news source on any channel provided possible outcomes and predictions. Given the election itself had brought upon such a huge mass media, I notice how the news sources continued to overlook Trumps votes given he was the underdog throughout the election and made it seem as if it was certain that Hillary would win the presidency. As the night continued we eventually learned that to no avail was hillary going to win as Trump slowly began to receive a higher voter turnout.

Public Opinion/ Trends: Given it was such a historic election, public opinion and traditional voting trends were overwhelming alter. Regardless Trumps victory came as a huge shock to many Americans. In comparison to previous elections, the turnout was extremely effective in regards to voting trends. To further elaborate, many of those who identified as republicans re-aligned and voted democrat. The same occurred among many democrats that voted republican. Women and men who would have voted democrat voted republican. Overall it was widely acknowledged and predicted that Hillary would take the presidency, but as we soon found out it was not the case. Given this grand shift in voting trends, the was ruled a critical election.

Campaigns and Elections:

At this point in time, both Hillary and Trump came to the third step in how to win the presidency. This is where the electoral votes along with the popular vote is determined. Given the results, whoever gets to 270 out of 538 votes first automatically wins the presidency. As we all watched, most of us were lead to believe that hillary would win due to the lead she obtained within the begining of the counting process. Although her lead fell short, she did manage to win the popular vote but lacked the electoral votes to win. As a result, Donald trump having received 290 votes won the Presidency.

Melissa Garcia B6

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Campaign/Election
Volunteering at the Courthouse allowed me to see the voting process behind the general election. Here in Nevada it was interesting to see how they tried to prevent voter fraud. The only thing voters had to do in order to vote was register and sign their name. After the voting had ended, there was many different opinions on which way the state would go, either Democrat or Republican since Nevada is a swing state.

Public Opinion/Trends
In the parking lot of the courthouse, there were many Hillary supporters trying to persuade people to vote for her. It was interesting that they were there and not Trump supporters because in almost all the public opinion polls taken nationally they had Hillary winning the election. Because there were such strong opinions on both candidates, I am sure that some of the people voting at the Courthouse were split-ticket voting.
Constitutional Principles
One of the principles in the Constitution is that of popular sovereignty. Going to the Courthouse and seeing the voting process made me more deeply appreciate that we choose the government and we the people have power over them. This nation is a Republic and through elections we are able to vote for officials to rule for the people. The experience at the Courthouse made me realize how important it is that we can vote for our leaders so that we can avoid a government that takes away people’s rights.

Anya Woodbury B6

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Liberal/Conservative Ideologies-

In order to successfully vote in the mock election as an educated person, one must research both sides of every question. Through this a person can vote for what they believe in. On the questions for the state, I voted to legalize Marijuana, to have stricter background checks, to regulate energy monopolization, and not to tax medical equipment. All of my votes tended to be on the liberal side of the political spectrum. But I voted more conservative on the local questions to not tax gasoline in order make roads better in 2018.

Public Opinion/Trends

The mock election truly shows the opinions of the young votes in the Nevada. It also shows the trends of young kids. It seems to be that the youth of Nevada has a very liberal vote. But that is already known, all young voters tend to have a liberal vote and the mock election seemed to show this trend or demographic perfectly. But since we are in Nevada, there is a lot more conservative old people in Nevada, a lot of kids imitate their parents and also vote conservatively. State ballot question 2 had a very close race since it was on such a sticky right or left question.

Media

The only reason Hillary won on the Mock election was because of social media. Social Media took what it hated, Donald Trump, and ripped him apart with every chance. Hilary primarily was not an issue because she tended not to degrade or discriminate against anyone. Plus a majority of young people are on social media and social media and young people are liberal voters.
by Alek Henricsksen

below is a picture of me filling the mock election ballot.

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Liberal/Conservative Ideology

The two different ideologies were present during student voting when we chose which candidates to vote for and which answer we put for each of the questions. Students who hold conservative ideologies typically tend to vote for republican candidates, especially if they aren’t familiar with the people they have to choose from. This idea also applies when students went to answer the different questions. Students who lean liberal tended to vote democratically on the questions. An example of this would be a democratic student voting yes for question number two.

Political Parties

The political parties jobs in the mock elections is to make students aware. By building students political identities, they get a more accurate prediction of how the election is going to turn out. Each party does this the same way they would gain any normal americans vote, by building a platform and picking and advertising candidates. This allowed students to relate to the party they are most like and vote upon that affiliation. Because students had this to relate to during the mock election, they felt more important while they were voting.

Constitutional Principles

The constitutional principle popular sovereignty is almost always present during an election. Regardless of the winner of the election, the people are usually pretty okay with who governs them. Because democracy is constantly in play during the election, it allows for people to be more accepting of the results.

Alyssa Woodward
B6

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Jayson Artz B6

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Political Party

Political parties coordinate the national elections that put people into office. The mock election reflects this same system that the national political parties set up in its format. For the presidential election, there were members from both major and minor party candidates running; however, the minor parties do not have much of a chance to win in the way that our elections are set up with the electoral college.

Liberal/Conservative Ideology

In the mock election, Hillary Clinton won, but in the actual event, her opponent, Donald Trump, was victorious. This means that the current president is a republican and will most likely impose conservative policies on our nation. This means that the national government will become less energetic because conservative ideology values a less powerful central government.

Constitutional Principles

During an election, popular sovereignty is in play because no matter what the result is, the people will accept what happens. This acceptance to be governed aligns with popular sovereignty. Democracy is also in play during an election because every person over the age of eighteen who is a citizen has the ability to vote in national elections. In a democracy, every vote is valued the same, and whichever candidate gets the majority of the votes automatically wins. Once the president in sworn into office, many checks and balances that are written into the constitution will be in play. For example, if or when president Trump nominates a supreme court justice, that justice will have to be approved by congress before they can assume the position.

Rylan Kane
B6

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Campaigns and Elections

The live results of the election marked the end of the campaigning road for the two major candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The entirety of November 8, 2016 was supposed to be predictable and an easy win for Hillary Clinton, but the election results proved otherwise. America showed a modern version of the Reagan critical election. Instead of being the south that realigns, it was the North.

Public Opinion/Trends

The trends and opinion of the public changed immensely from previous presidential elections. For example, many northern states that have usually sided democratic have realigned and supported the Republican party. This huge shift can be defined as a critical election. Many states in the north are urban and rely on industrialization; therefore, causing them to mainly vote to the left of the political spectrum rather than the right. But this election was different, not only with states, but with many other demographics. For instance, college graduates are more likely to vote Republican rather than Democratic because they do not need government assistance, but this election those that graduated from college voted Democratic.

Media

CNN was the media outlet that provided live minute by minute results. This news station also reported stories, results, and predictions from many different sources. The predictions were democratic biased showing that the station was using a democratic biased source. Each prediction of the results was backfired constantly when many of the states swung to the right of the political spectrum and provided Trump with its state electoral votes.

Kalysta Branco
B6

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Media

Media was present in voting in the election in how it influenced my vote. Without the media’s agenda setting I would not have focused on certain issues when considering who to vote for. Media was also present after in how they reported the results and how they polled people outside the voting centers. I used social media more than any other source because it was used a lot during this election. This is mainly because the two presidential candidates used social media platforms to express their ideas.

Modern Democratic Theories

In voting I was participating in pluralism and hyperpluralism. I was participating in pluralism because i was getting together with a group of people that have similar views. Voting in the election can also be seen as hyperpluralism because I was voting against a group of people who shared an opinion that I do not share.

Constitutional principles

Taking part in an election means that I was taking part in popular sovereignty and also means I was taking part in the system of checks and balances. Popular sovereignty means that people get together and vote for something and that is what people do on election day. I was taking part in the systems of checks and balances by voting because I voted for people in the different parts of government. By voting for both executive and legislative branch I was able to take part in the system of checks and balances.

Riley Riedl
B6

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Debating the limitation of qualified immunity for police officers

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Debating the limitation of qualified immunity for police officers

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Sawyer Barnett
B6
Liberal/Conservative Ideology

The left side of the spectrum agrees that police brutality is a crime that society cannot allow. They believe by limiting qualified immunity, police misconduct and police brutality will go down because police will be able to be sued in civil cases. On the opposite side of the spectrum, conservatives view that qualified immunity is not too expansive because it allows the officers to take necessary action where criminals are the ones causing the violent actions.

Modern Democratic Theory

A reason for holding qualified immunity to a stricter level is because qualified immunity can allow officers to hold more power under the bureaucratic theory of democracy. Officers disproportionately use excessive force against minorities (like in Boston or Florida where they were specifically told to target people of color) and cannot be charged for it because of the Pearson vs. Callahan court decision to expand qualified immunity’s power. By limiting qualified immunity, officers will have to abide by the law rather than subjective policing. Limiting qualified immunity would therefore reduce the harms of the bureaucratic theory to modern democracy.

Media

One reason that qualified immunity for police officers is in public debate right now is because of the media circulation. The media acts as an agenda setter and watchdog, bringing to light cases like Freddy Gray. The media makes people believe that police misconduct is incredibly pervasive in America, bringing to the table the debate about limiting qualified immunity, when in reality police misconduct is a fairly rare crime even though officers have to use deadly force fairly often.

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Voting in the 2016 Presidential Election

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Voting in the 2016 Presidential Election

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Campaign/Election

This year, I turned 18 in October so I was able to vote in the presidential election in November for the first time. At first, I was not planning on voting because I did not register, but luckily I was approached by a classmate who was a volunteer on behalf of the Democratic Party who then registered me. I believe that having volunteers that represented political parties is a very helpful and effective way in gaining supporters or even more so just voters in general. Also, especially with having government this year and learning about all the strategies that candidates put into their campaigns and advertisements, I paid more attention on how the candidates lured in more supporters. For example, Hillary Clinton would continually include women and children in her campaign to gain voters in that area.
Political Party Functions and Platforms

So, because there were representative volunteers, they activated more voters by registering people. In this election, minor parties such as the Green Party and the Libertarians played a significant role. During election day when the votes were being counted, the states who elected for a minor party candidate fell under the Republican party. Ultimately, all of those electoral college votes went to Donald Trump, thus having won the presidential election.

Media

Media played a very significant role in this year’s election. Especially with social media, the candidates were able to appeal to a wider audience, specifically the younger generation. Although with the media, the candidates were also portrayed in a bad light as well by manipulating their words.

Rachel Tran
B6

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Modern Democratic Theories
Hyperpluralism played a large part in the 2016 election. Because of the mass surprise of the results for many people, the country seemed very torn as to the next president. In a different sense, Pluralism played a factor because much of the United States came together and agreed to make Donald Trump the President.

Political Party Functions and Platforms
Donald Trump is part of the Republican Party, a major party. According to trends of the presidential elections, minor parties typically do not enter the Executive branch. The party did a good job of activating voters known as the silent majority. Nominating the candidate Donald Trump came to pass because of the support of the people.

Media
The events leading up to the election were greatly skewed by the media. Because much of the mass media related to the younger demographic is skewed to the left, people mainly experienced a large spin towards the democratic party. Many polls taken fell through the filter of the media as the gatekeeper and did not allow the U.S. to fully comprehend the lead that Donald Trump had taken. This caused many people to be surprised by the results.

Donald Trump wins the election.
Elise Brady B6

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Media

During the counting process, I was switching back and forth between multiple news sources to see who was ahead in the race and how each channel showed the news. I watched how the media was overlooking Trump’s votes and were trying to stay positive and were predicting Clinton’s win. I mainly watched CNN but did switch over to see the local news as well. The local news went into more depth about Nevada and the questions, which were all passed. By the end of the election when Trump was in lead, most major news sources were shocked and left speechless, along with the rest of America.

Public Opinion/ Trends

Many political trends were proven wrong on election night. Women who tend to vote Democratic, voted Republican.Voting did not confine minorities to vote Democratic since some did not. It was widely predicted that Clinton would win based upon the trends but was proven wrong when the public opinion changed. Many believed that all the voters who came out and voted for Obama would vote for the next Democratic candidate, they were expecting a large voter turnout but instead ended up with a very low amount of voters.

Campaign/Election

This is the third step in the steps to presidency. The general election is where the popular vote is counted and based upon that the projected electoral votes are announced to the public. The electoral college voting does not happen until January 6th. According to the popular vote Hillary won, but the votes that matter are the electoral votes which resulted Trump as the winner.

Aneet Mand
B6