Lake Mary Prep senior codes mock-election computer program

LAKE MARY, Fla. – Election Day is four days away. While people over the age of 18 are heading to the polls, some local students are also joining the process all thanks to a fellow student at Lake Mary Preparatory School who created a computer program for the school's mock election.
 
Parker Martin, 17, isn't old enough to vote in this election, but he's not letting his age stop him from participating in the process of democracy.
 
"In government class we've been monitoring this actually very closely and we've been doing a bunch of research on each candidate," Martin said. 
 
The high school at Lake Mary Prep is holding a mock election on Tuesday. 
 
To make it as real as possible, Martin decided to create a computer program from scratch. He coded everything from voter verification to the ballot. He also plans to analyze the results once all the votes are in.

"I thought what if we had an actual computer program that we could use as a ballot so it's more real," he said.
 
Martin spent the past month working on the program. Students will be required to verify their ID using a school yearbook picture. They will then have the chance to vote in the governor and Senate races, the race for House District 7 and the voter restoration amendment.
 
Martin said voting will be anonymous. Once all the ballots are collected, he can analyze the results by grade level, gender and determine the winners.
 
Martin's computer science teacher, Mario Martinez Jr., said this is a great way to get young people excited about voting.
 
"Our country is based on participation and if we don't participate, we're going to lose it," Martinez said. 
 
Martin said he is ready for Election Day and is hopeful everything will run smoothly.
 
"Everybody is really excited because we've been planning this for a while and we're finally able to do it," Martin said.