On Oct. 26, Elgin Community College hosted a mock debate in the Jobe lounge, with a rather large crowd who came out to watch the three candidates who were there trying to prove their point.

Three different students played three different candidates: Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton and Libertarian Presidential Party Candidate Gary Johnson. They were played by students David Jones, Samantha Davalos and Jonathan Godinez, respectively.

The audience might have been surprised to know that the students were portraying the candidates through improvisation and acting.

David Jones, a second year student here at ECC, thought the debate went very well. “I thought the debate went very well, I come out and say it my opponents worked very hard on playing their respected candidates, but I do think I got the win, but it was fun and entertaining to go out there,” said Jones.

Interestingly enough, all members involved in the debate only had one month to work on it and test it out themselves.

Jonathan Godinez, third year student agreed, with Jones by saying, “ With only a month of preparation and research on our candidates, it made it difficult and it was tough on all of us, especially when you’re trying to play something that you don’t support.”

The debate itself was similar to those one may have seen on TV already. There was a student there that would ask questions to the candidates. The questions ranged from free tuition which they managed to cover first to Syria to defense to even personal character, which is a large factor in this upcoming election.

During all however, they did go back and forth, talking about the scandals that rocked this election from Clinton’s email’s to Trump’s sexual assault; nothing was left untouched in this mock debate.

However, all three student ‘candidates’ were ready for the challenge of playing their character. Jones pointed out that it was not hard for him to get into character.

“It’s because I love acting, and comedy I think it was very natural to get into the Donald Trump role, not in sense of belief but because I play a lot of cocky characters and stuff like that,” said Jones.

However, Samantha Davalos, second year student at ECC, did feel differently about acting out her role.

“I’m not the greatest actor, so I really didn’t try and act like her, I was more concerned with getting the information out rather than being her,” said Davalos.

The large crowd present in the lounge was very vocal to the mock candidates and what they had to say, even at the end of the event, when it was time to ask questions. There were numerous hands that went up in efforts to ask them questions about their candidate.

One of the crowd members was Zach Cummings, a third year student at ECC. He talked about the debate in two different ways, both positively and negatively.

“It kind of dragged on after a while, but the actor who played Trump seemed to have known what he was talking about and his antics, but I think the other two candidates lacked a little bit,” said Cummings.

Jones praised the crowd on how they acted and reacted to some things the three candidates would say.

“I thought they were very energetic, they were responsive, and this was a big reason why I took this on such short notice was because I was told I could play Donald Trump, how crazy it would be if the crowd would boo me which they did, and how crazy it would be if I go them to cheer for me,” said Jones.

All three also have tips going into the actual election and how they believe you should take it, voting or not.

“I believe you should take it and look at both perspectives, there is no such thing as fact, you look left and right and you see two different things, keep your mind open and vote for who you think is strongest,” said Jones.

Godinez also wanted to remind the ECC students about the overall bigger picture of the event.

“Just like I said in the debate, it’s not just about the presidential election, it’s also about the local elections,” said Godinez. “People need to know who you’re voting for and say hey I see Hilary, I see Donald, I see Gary, and then you see a lot more people that have been doing this for a lot more time and they have great opportunity as well.”

Davalos also wanted to talk about the negatives, at which he states “Watch out for the bias that they have been seeing within ourselves, and try to push it aside and just try and look at their platforms, start actually listening to what they have to say, found out what’s true, found out what not only yourself wants but the country, because it is a huge big deal.”

All three student members who participated agreed that they are excited to see who would win the mock debate from the results that were tallied up.