Early this morning, we received news of Donald Trump’s presidential victory after nearly two acrimonious years of campaigning. Yesterday, polls across the country opened around 7:00 a.m., and the American people began casting their votes. Here at Choate, we asked students to do the same. An online poll sent via email was answered by 689 of Choate’s 865 students, between roughly 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Though recent history shows that voter turnout typically hovers around the 60% mark, the number of Choate students who voted in our election was well above that, at 79.7%. Undoubtedly, this can be partly attributed to the ease of our online poll; we weren’t asking students to wait in long lines or register beforehand. But perhaps the average Choatie is more patriotic, as well.
In stark contrast to the results of the national election, here on campus, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine won with the support of 56.5% of the student body, or 389 people. Though nationwide Donald Trump and Mike Pence received 47.5% of the popular vote, only 21.8% of Choate students, or 150 people, supported the ticket. Libertarian Gary Johnson came in third, receiving 35 votes, or 5.1%, of the participating population. Green Party Candidate Jill Stein, in fourth, picked up 14 votes, or 2%, of the share.
Notably, about 14.5% of students voted “Other.” Their write-in choices varied from First Lady Michelle Obama to House Speaker Paul Ryan to “I’m Canadian” to Harambe, the deceased Cincinnati Zoo gorilla who became a meme last summer.
Once the results were in, the editors of The Choate News devised an electoral map of Choate. We opted for an electoral college with 265 electors, scaling the institution down from the nation’s 538, to account for Choate’s much smaller voting population. Mimicking the allocation of votes in the national electoral college, every dorm and the day-student body received an initial two electoral votes, regardless of size (just as every state in the union gets three electors automatically, one for each senator and a member of the house of representatives). Then we allocated the remaining 151 electors: for every five students in a dorm or the day-student body, one additional electoral vote was allotted. Small dorms equal to or less than five people (Pierce and Lowndes) received only two votes, but larger groups, like Memorial House and the School’s day students, received 16 and 41 electoral votes, respectively. Our goal was to imitate the system of an American presidential election, in which residents of smaller states have more sway than they do in other types of elections, and the majority of votes within a state nearly always dictates which candidate receives all electoral votes. (Confused? Check out this N.P.R. article and Vox piece to understand more about how America’s electoral college works.)
Here is how the dorms were broken down:
| POPULATION | NUMBER OF ELECTORAL VOTES |
| 0-5 | 2 |
| 6-10 | 3 |
| 11-15 | 4 |
| 16-20 | 5 |
| 21-25 etc. | 6 etc. |
Three boys’ dorms, Spencer, Woodhouse, and Hill, went for Donald Trump. The only girls’ dorm to not sway in full favor of Secretary Clinton was Chapel, where Clinton and popular write-in candidate Paul Ryan tied. In Quantrell, Hillary and Donald tied. For Edsall, the split was three-way: Gary Johnson, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump. As one can see, the electoral map favored Hillary much more heavily than the popular vote – even further from Tuesday’s national result.
Bubble size reflects number of electoral votes.
Last night, as over a hundred Choate students anxiously watched the election results in Lanphier Commons, the feeling of defeat and pessimism among a Hillary-leaning crowd was almost palpable. In coming months, Mr. Trump (one hopes) will seek to unify the nation as president-elect; The Choate News will continue to cover students’ reactions to his shocking victory and what it means for our nation.
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