Analyzing the number

The biggest difference between the vote margin in the TAHS election and the actual election was the percentage of the youth vote that President Trump won locally.

In Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden currently leads Donald Trump by over 54,000 votes, Biden received an estimated 154,000 more youth votes than Trump.

According to the New York Times, Biden beat Trump among young voters age 18-29 in Pennsylvania by a wide margin, 62%-35%.

However, there was no such youth advantage for Biden among Tyrone High School students or among actual voters aged 18-29 in Blair County, where the number of registered Republicans outnumbers registered Democrats about two to one.

Among voters age 18-29 in Blair County, there are 3,502 registered Republicans, but only 1,887 registered Democrats.

The much higher vote totals for President Trump in both the mock election and actual election suggest that geography and family probably influenced voters’ preferences more than age.

“This is a rural area and the people here are mostly Christian and have aligning views,” said Tyrone sophomore Kolten Miller, on why he believes that young people in this area tend to lean more Republican.

Exit polls showed that those who believe abortion should be illegal favored Trump by a margin of 76% to 23%.

It is clear that most parents have a big impact on student’s lives, and that influence is probably reflected in the vote totals.

Young people often look up to their parents, which means, in most cases, they will follow their lead. Also, around this area religion has a big influence on many people. That means that students will get the influence of their leaders in their church or place of worship.