On November 2 the voting age at Maine West was lowered to 13, giving students a chance to vote in the straw poll sponsored by Tri‑S. The students responded by electing three Republican and three Democratic candidates, along with approval of both the new state constitution and the Anti‑Pollution Bond Act.

With 1,108 votes, Democrat Adlai Stevenson defeated Republican Ralph Smith in the U.S. Senate race. Smith, with 866 votes, was not the only Republican who lost. Joe Woods emerged with 874 votes, but he was still short of the 1,123 votes that were cast for Democrat George Dunne who was reelected president of the Cook County Board. Democrat Richard Elrod was elected Sheriff of Cook County with 1,170 votes while Republican Bernard Carey managed to get only 885.

Of the 1,983 votes cast in the race for state treasurer, 1,013 were for the Republican candidate, Edmund Kucharski, with the remaining 970 votes going to his opponent, Alan Dixon. The post of Cook County Assessor was won by Republican Ben Adamowski, while his opponent, P. J. Cullerton, was only 50 votes behind with a total of 951. It was a four man contest in the race for state representative. After all the votes were counted, only 22 votes separated the winner, Robert Juckett, from Mr. Kenneth Lindquist who finished second with 623 votes. Republican Arthur Simmons finished third with a total of 293 votes, while Democrat Aaron Jaffe came in last with only 213 votes.

Maine West students showed their concern over the pollution problem by overwhelmingly passing the Anti‑Pollution Bond Act. Approval of the bond act was shown by the 1,862 students who voted "Yes" as compared to only 123 "No" votes. The new constitution was also approved by 1,553 students, while only 332 expressed disapproval in the document.