As you may have already seen, there are several posters for this year’s Student Council elections that are posted around the school. This is the first time that the student body has gotten to vote directly in this election. But how many people actually voted?
Only 24% of students eligible to vote actually voted. When talking with friends about it, most of them said they didn’t vote, had a friend running or voted because someone else asked them to. A few of them didn’t know how to vote so they just decided not to. Most students do want to see the improvements they could make to our school and Student Council, but others felt that voting in the council election wouldn’t actually change anything.
“I’ve never seen Student Council as a big enough influence in school life for voting on it to matter,” said junior Florence Mondragon.
Most of the students who didn’t vote didn’t care because they don’t know what the Student Council even does. They didn’t know what the people were like, what the positions were and why they should even vote for them in the first place.
Sophomore Lottie Yates, who chose not to vote, said, “I want to know what these positions are and what they mean for the school and student body…I would want to know why I should vote for certain candidates. What will they do for the school? What are their campaign promises? All we have to go off of is names, cute doodles and cute slogans.”
Yates said they would have voted if they had known why they should vote and if they knew specifically how voting would benefit the school and the rest of the student body. They have stated that they would like to see the campaign structured more like a political election with campaigns and platforms.
Junior Sam Kepke feels similar about the topic. He wants the Student Council to have more of a presence in school and see them do things that benefit the school.
“[I would have voted if] they actually had more presence in the school,” Kepke said. ”Everytime I see something about Student Council, I end up scratching my head going ‘can you guys actually do anything, or are words just being said’.”
What does the Student Council do anyway? Well, they help plan events like senior sunset and sunrise, winter wonderland, spirit days and homecoming.
Junior Chloé Ellerbee, a part of the Student Council, said, “We plan and execute events like senior sunset and sunrise, winter wonderland, spirit days and homecoming. We also have committees that make these events happen in the committee and people vote on which person represents a committee.”
Not all students chose not to vote though. Some wanted to see change in the school and decided to vote for people who they thought would do just that.
Freshman Channing Eichelberger said, “I like to see what they would do for the school.”
Others still only voted because they had a friend running or because someone asked them.
What would have made students vote then? Most said they would have voted if there was more of a presence, and there was proof that the Student Council was benefiting the school.
Junior Florence Mondragon said, “[I would have voted] If Student Council had power in academic policies, not just events.”
Some students who did vote could see why others chose not to.
Junior Skip Collett, who voted, said, “From what I know, most people really [didn’t vote], especially when it feels like they don’t do much, if anything. It feels more like the overachiever popularity contest than a student government.”
I personally chose not to vote because I don’t see the point, as the more popular someone is, the more likely they are to win. There seemed to be no campaigning, just people asking students to vote for them. I also had no idea who was running, what they were running for, why they were running and what the positions were like.
If they do this again next year, I would like to see more of a campaign aspect, more of a social aspect, as that might get more people to participate.
