Museum of Idaho held a mock election for patriotic exhibit

As America braces for a new presidential election, the Museum of Idaho already has a guess at who it’s going to be.

“Since June 3, we’ve had a straw poll for our guests to take and vote for who they want to be president,” said Deborah Chessey, the marketing director for the Museum of Idaho. “People that come through here come from everywhere. It’s not just Idahoans who voted in this pole. It’s just a good experiment to see how our results correlate to what the nation does tomorrow.”

The poll was divided up between adult and youth groups. The ballot had the option of choosing Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, or a write-in candidate for president. (The ballots were made in the late spring before the democratic party finalized their candidate.)

In both age groups, write in candidates were the most popular, but the single candidate that saw the most votes was Donald Trump. Clinton’s lack of popularity in the region showed as Libertarian Candidate Gary Johnson actually had more write-in votes with the adult aged group than Clinton did.

Skyline High School student body officers helped the museum with the counting and in the process had a chance to learn a little bit about how the election works.