Social Science Club holds election day contest

The Social Sciences Club on campus is hosting an election contest in which students are predicting the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election. The contest winner will be awarded a new Xbox Series S courtesy of the club. 

Justin Curtis, assistant professor of political science, said, “Winning the presidency is much more complicated than just whoever gets the most votes wins. So this is an opportunity to help students understand how that works.”

Students predicted the overall winner of the election between Biden or Trump, and then go through all 51 states in the electoral college (plus the District of Columbia). 

Curtis said the goal of the contest was to provide a teaching opportunity and to allow students to have fun while learning. 

“Hopefully students have a better sense of how that works now,” Curtis said. 

He said that contest ballots were handed out in the student center and that all students could participate. Most of the ballots received came from Social Sciences students. 

The contest ballots were due October 30. Curtis said that with some states voting early, it was important to get ballots back ahead of the election to mitigate any cheating or easy predictions. 

He said that the winner will be announced after the Presidency is announced. 

“Hopefully this week,” Curtis said, “We’re optimistic, but we will see.”