MARSHALL — It took some technological changes, but students at Marshall High School kept an election-year tradition going with a mock election this week. The results of the mock presidential election were close — with Joe Biden leading by just 26 votes.

The narrow margin in the results didn’t really come as a surprise, said members of the MHS Honor Society, which organized the mock election.

“I knew going into the mock election that it could go either way, and the results showed just how close the real election will be,” said Honor Society member Aubrey Bjella.

“I predicted it would be a close race in our school, and it was like that throughout the entire day,” said Honor Society member Noah Dunn. “Our school has a moderate base, so I could not really predict the outcome before the voting day was done.”

The MHS Honor Society has held mock elections since 2008, said MHS teacher and Honor Society adviser Rick Purrington. This year, students cast mock votes for candidates in the U.S. presidential and vice presidential races, as well as the U.S. Senate and House races in Minnesota.

In all three races, the Republican and Democratic candidates were the clear front-runners, and the Democrats had a narrow lead across all three races. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received 245 votes, and President Donald Trump and Mike Pence received 219 votes. In the mock Senate race, Sen. Tina Smith received 234 votes and Jason Lewis received 219 votes. In the mock Congressional District 7 race, Rep. Collin Peterson received 233 votes, and Michelle Fischbach received 221 votes.

MHS students had a turnout of 60% for the mock election.

Over the years, the mock presidential races have tended to be close, Purrington said. The biggest margin the mock elections have had so far was in 2016, when Donald Trump won by 6%.

“As a social studies teacher, I certainly have noticed more engagement from students about politics the last few years,” he said.

“I think most of the interest is due to President Trump. He can often be controversial and he’s always interesting. And so, we’ve seen quite a bit of awareness about this year’s election among MHS students.”

Organizing the mock election with a hybrid school schedule was an extra challenge this year, students said.

“Usually the mock election would be held during the one-hour lunch time, and this year we don’t have that,” Bjella said. Instead, students held an electronic vote, using Microsoft forms as ballots. Members of the Honor Society’s scholarship committee also recorded an informational video about the election candidates and the importance of voting, which students could watch on YouTube.

“The purpose of our mock election is to give students an opportunity to experience the process of voting and being a part of the election, and while we could not fully do this, we felt that this method gave students the experiences of voting for the future,” Dunn said.