Throughout the day Tuesday, Nov. 7, students flocked to the Learning Commons to vote in the Douglas County mock election, a District-wide event where students can vote on computers to simulate the actual voting experience.

Librarian Bryan Winkelman first began the mock election two presidential elections ago as a school-wide election when he was librarian at Highlands Ranch High School. Four years ago, he opened it up to three schools, and this year, four high schools and two middle schools are participating.

“It’s my baby,” Winkelman said.

This summer, Winkelman built a website to offer supporting materials such as information about ballot initiatives and instructions on how and where to vote. Each school participating has its own page on the website.

“I really think it’s important,” Winkelman said. “It’s an opportunity to get people involved in the election, involved in the issues, to see how the process works.”

Because of the school’s seven period schedule, the entire student body of Legend High School was able to vote in the mock election, while students at Rock Canyon mostly had to find their own free time to vote, much like the actual election.

“Ours is more like the real election,” Winkelman said. “You have to find some time.”

After the results are in, Winkelman will create an electoral map for the presidential election based on the number of votes cast at each school, allowing students to compare the percentages of the popular vote versus the electoral vote.

“[Legend] is going to be California on our electoral map,” Winkelman said with a laugh. “We (Rock Canyon) are hoping to maybe be Ohio.”

As of noon Monday, nearly 2000 votes had already been cast throughout the district.  390 Rock Canyon students registered to vote before the election day, but others were still allowed to register and vote on the day of.

Near the polling station computers was what Winkelman called the “‘I Voted’ Selfie Station” where students could take pictures with props like Trump and Clinton hair, or a maple leaf that says “I’m Moving to Canada.”

Winkelman’s informational website (including election results) is found here.