It’s a tight race for the presidency at the Wareham Middle School.

According to fifth grade teacher Brian Fitzgerald, who leads a 21-person enrichment class called ‘Electing the President,’ there are 36 votes cast for Republican candidates, and 35 for a Democratic. He said the class, which began in February, has the students examining the current presidential race, and the mechanics involved in getting a campaign off the ground.

Fitzgerald said the school is holding staggered primaries, in time with the United States’ primaries. The homerooms each represent a different state, and vote in time with when the actual states cast their primary votes. He said the 13 homerooms representing the 13 states voting in Tuesday’s primary will vote Tuesday, too.

“[Tuesday] is going to be a notable day across the school and across the nation,” Fitzgerald said.

However, because the class does not meet until the end of the week, the results will not be counted until Thursday or Friday, as the students "like counting the votes, too."

The students will also have preliminary discussions about the general elections towards the end of the year, and will get to vote for one of two contenders, based on who wins the primaries in the school, Fitzgerald said.

He also said the students are learning how people are influenced when voting.

“One of the many things we have spoken about is how people like to hear about politics from people who look like them,” Fitzgerald said. “We have had some interesting dynamics arise.”

To some degree, Fitzgerald said, the candidates’ fortunes in the school have waxed and waned in tandem with the national climate. Within the Republican field, Donald Trump is coming in first, with Tom Cruz and Marco Rubio second and third, respectively. As for the Democratic field, it’s a tight race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

Though the students are allowed to campaign, they must campaign using a “budget” that increases and decreases, based on how the candidates do in the various primaries. The better a candidate does, the more “budget” they have. The opposite is also true.

“It will be interesting to see if they remain loyal to their candidates, or switch,” Fitzgerald said.