By Nefertari Elshiekh, staff writer
On November 1, both the Democratic and Republican candidates had the chance to face their opponents at the Candidates Debate. Since the last TV and radio show took place on November 3, this was one of the last opportunities for the candidates to share their ideas and convince the voters to vote for them.
Social Studies teacher Jaime Baranoff, who served as the Election Simulation Coordinator for the first time this year, but has been involved in Election Simulation as a teacher since 2005, said, “The student voters can hear and see first hand what the candidates have to say. Hopefully they will learn things they didn’t know before and will begin to arrive at a decision as to which candidate they’ll vote for. Many times votes are won or lost based on what happens at the debate.”
Junior Atia Ahmed who watched both debates commented, “I think Carlina Rivera expressed her ideas clearly. She refuted all the criticism thrown her way by her opponents. I thought the debate went pretty well. The candidates were serious, but also lightened the mood through jokes.”
Junior Michelle Lee agreed that “Carlina Rivera did a good job expressing her ideas because she talked about a variety of policies and how she was going to achieve them.” She continued, “The debate was really entertaining this year, but it should definitely be longer because I feel like a lot of the candidates had more to say, but due to time they couldn’t.”
Sophomore Vicki Kanellopoulos found the debate very helpful. She explained, “Before the debate, I didn’t really know much about the candidates. Now I have the information I need to make an informed decision. However, I would have liked if they accepted more questions at the debate.”
Freshman Zoe Tylipakis described her first candidates debate experience. She said, “I thought the debate was going to be boring, but it was actually really entertaining. I found it to be very helpful. I learned a lot about the candidates, especially those who didn’t come to my history class.”
Melissa King, who is the Republican candidate for Mayor, Nicole Malliotakis, discussed how she prepared for the debate. She said, “I tried to connect with her as a person, rather than just getting to know facts about her policies.” She continued on to say, “I think that I was good at getting my policies across to everyone, while [Bill de Blasio] just attacked me and my stance on many issues.”
While Election Simulation 2017 has come to an end, and there won’t be any commercials or radio show every week, there is still next year to look forward to.
