As Flagler County Went Red, School Students Went Redder, But a Mock Election Takes a Turn for the ‘Divisive’

Just eight years ago, the 6,500 students from Flagler County district and private schools gave Hillary Clinton a 1 percent edge over Donald Trump in that year’s election, conducted a few days before that election night, when Trump shocked country and world by taking the Midwest and the election. Since then, however, students in Flagler’s schools have turned Trump’s way more decisively–just as their parents have.

This year’s mock election in schools, held by Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart, was applauded by teachers and administrators and drew significant participation, but some reactions on social media are making Lenhart rethink her approach in future years.




In that latest mock election, held in district and private schools last month, Trump took 62.4 percent of the vote to Kamala Harris’s 30 percent, with five minor-party candidates taking the rest. That’s a higher proportion of support for Trump than in the actual election of 2020 in Flagler County, where he took 60 percent of the vote, to Joe Biden’s 39 percent, though obviously tonight’s results have yet to be announced.

In the mock election of 2020, Biden fared much better, taking 40.6 percent. Trump edged him out with 49 percent of the vote, while Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian Party candidate, took a surprising 4.3 percent (compared to 0.5 percent in the actual balloting). Biden won the national popular vote by 51.3 percent in 2020, to Trump’s 46.8 percent.

“My goal was to bring the electoral process into the classroom where teachers could build upon the experience with civics education,” Lenhart said. “Voting at school is a unique opportunity that helps young people become educated, engaged citizens. Students are our future voters!”




Students’ votes are generally–but certainly not always–a reflection of the political atmosphere at home, itself a reflection of Flagler County registrations. “I would think that if parents are vocal in the home about local elections, students will pick up on it or become more engaged/involved,” Allison Elledge, for a many years a teacher in FPC’s IB program, said. (She left last spring.)

Democrats last held an edge in registrations in 2008, during the Barack Obama surge. Democrats have steadily been losing ground to Republicans since, especially with new migrants into the state. In November 2016, Republicans had a 6,000-voter advantage over Democrats. This November, they hold a 24,000-voter advantage out of 97,000 registered voters.

Just shy of 4,000 students participated in the 2024 mock election, doing so from all nine of the county’s traditional public schools and six additional private schools and the district’s virtual option. This time Lenhart provided a breakdown of votes by schools, which may seem surprising: Flagler Palm Coast High School, which has a higher proportion of Black and minority students, went for Trump by an even larger margin of 65 percent (to Harris’s 29 percent), while Matanzas High School gave Trump 57 percent and Harris 33 percent. Similarly, Trump won Buddy Taylor Middle with a higher proportion of the vote than he did Indian Trails Middle School.




Unsurprisingly, Trump’s winning margin was much larger in evangelical schools: it was over 87 percent at Christ the King Academy and 82 percent at First Baptist Christian Academy (whose mascot is a crusader). Harris’s best total was at Coastal Education sample, where she took 40 percent of the vote to Trump’s 48, but the sample was low: just 25 students. Harris took 37 percent of the vote at Rymfire Elementary, to Trump’s 55.6 percent.

Some 800 students participated at Matanzas High School, MHS Principal Kristin Bozeman said. “I was very supportive of our students participating in the mock election,” the principal said. “High school students are either close to voting age or have already reached voting age, so it was a great opportunity to raise awareness around voting. I know that our students who participated learned about the importance of doing your research before you reach the ballot box as the high school ballot included other state-wide offices in addition to the President. While most of our students were aware of the candidates for President, I think the mock election made them realize there are local elections and state-wide elections that they should research and engage with as well so that they know who they want to vote for. I’m hoping that because of their participation in the mock election our students will register to vote when the time comes and then be lifelong voters.”

Elledge had similar experiences with her students at FPC. “We discussed elections in the classroom and I encouraged participation in the mock event,” she said this week. “But discussions were held with caution in these heated times and usually discussion of local elections fell flat. Students just didn’t know the issues, weren’t interested much in tax policy, building expansion, and so forth. I think they understood the school board issues more than other local issues.” That may have been because of controversies swirling around the School Board, including book bans, which drew more attention, she said.




“I had many students speak before the school board and I actively encouraged it,” Elledge said. “For me, it was a teacher-win. I saw it as their first entry into considering what happened at the local level. I think these discussions are especially suited for a government class.”

But even though the election in schools was a “great success,” Lenhart intends to withhold future election results until after Election Day. “Emotions are too high in the days leading up to an election, which is what we are seeing on social media and elsewhere,” she said.

“When the district announced the student election, I heard from a few parents who were concerned that a student election would intensify the political climate at the schools,” Lenhart said. “They worried about timing and perception and wanted to make sure the student votes were secret and how an individual student voted would not be disclosed. Of course, voting is anonymous. We have no way to “tie the vote” to any one person, and that is by design, just as the voting system is designed for adults. District schools offered a parent opt-out for those parents who did not wish for their children to participate.”

Lenhart was a bit troubled by some of the comments on the school-related Flagler Schools Parent group on Facebook. “What should be a civics lesson and wholesome hands-on learning experience for our future voters took a sharp turn into divisive and completely unnecessary political discourse – most comments unrelated to the student voting process itself,” Lenhart said. “It’s disheartening, and unfortunately, these are the times we are living in today. As with all social media, and especially in contentious election years, comments on one individual Facebook post do not reflect the majority of parents and students who appreciate the opportunity. We received very positive feedback from both teachers and parents.”




Some of the comments on Flagler Schools Parent: “I wasn’t a fan of this anyway. I don’t want politics being taught in school in this climate.” The comment got 26 likes. “I’m sorry but high schoolers don’t have enough knowledge or real world experience to make an appropriate vote. They vote for who their parents tell them to and go off of what is being said at home,” another said.

Another: “I don’t think it was healthy to release these results. It is either going to have parents pressuring kids to tell who they voted for and then parents telling them why they are wrong, or it’s going to cause people on here to talk poorly about the kids. This should have only been about educating students of the process and importance of voting not to cause further divide. Some of you are really on here bad mouthing children bc they don’t agree with your politics. Your vote is your privacy, can we keep it that way.”

On the other hand, Lenhart’s mock election also got significant support. Sandra Shank, who serves on palm Coast’s planning board and the countywide affordable housing committee–and was recently passed over for an appointment to the City Council–wrote: “This was an excellent opportunity to promote civic responsibility. I’m especially happy to see that 7.18% of the views for presidency were cast for people who are brave enough to run against this demonic binary system. I’m hopeful that there are future leaders amongst us who will transform this system and I pray that they will remain independent thinkers willing to go against the norm.”

Another wrote: “Indoctrination is a crazy thing, everyone is wrong if they don’t agree. I think it’s great to let the youth grow into democracy and form their own thoughts!”