Amundsen Students Predict the Election, Work the Polls on Tuesday

Amundsen High School senior Gabriella Aguirre slept soundly on Tuesday, but not because she worked more than 14 hours at local voting precinct. It was because Barack Obama was re-elected as President of the United States.

Aguirre was one of about 25 Amundsen students that worked as election judges on Tuesday. She, along with fellow seniors Stephanie Figueroa, Magdalen D’Alessio and Xuan Huynh, all predicted Obama’s victory.

While working the polls, students saw hundreds of voters, some more outspoken than others.

Huynh encountered a woman wearing a t-shirt with a photo-shopped image of her and Obama walking down the beach together.

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Weird encounters aside, all four students ran into confused voters who went to the wrong precinct because of the ward remaps passed in the summer.

D’Alessio said it was chaotic when the polls opened and more than 20 people had to switch precincts.

“Some people waited in line for an hour and I couldn’t tell them they were at the wrong place, I felt awful,” Huynh said.

All of the students were online or watching TV Tuesday night, waiting for the results to come in for the Presidential and Senate races.

Aguirre said she was impressed that a record-number 19 women were elected into the US Senate.

“It definitely sets the standard for women,” Aguirre said. “They really helped with rights and inequality; we can be just as good as men.”

It was her first time volunteering at the polls, and also her first time voting.

“It was really good to be able to share it with everybody,” she said.

Huynh had more than 500 voters at her precinct in the 40^th Ward, but was happy to see so many people come out and vote.

“It’s so much better to know what’s going on and make a difference, to take the time out and vote,” she said.

The students are part of the Mikva Challenge, an organization that creates opportunities for high school students to get involved in the political process. More than 2,000 Chicago juniors and seniors worked the polls on Election Day. To be selected, the students had to have a 3.0 GPA and U.S. citizenship.

Amundsen has the longest-running Mikva Challenge club, led by teacher Colleen Murray.