Looking at the current state of how Student Elections are handled at our school, something smells downright fishy, and I think it just might be that people are actually allowed to use live fish to advertise for their campaign. If I wanted to, I could hand out goldfish in the Commons, with “Vote 4 James” or “Vote Win-ger” (A Winning Ginger, get it?) on the sides of the plastic bags that hold the fish. But, let me ask, does that show my commitment or leadership potential for the school? With elections at our school, it seems the question rarely gets asked, and is even less often answered.

Campaigns, instead, seem founded on factors that have nothing to do with actual leadership skills. First, look at the money. Through this week of Student Representative elections, and last week’s Executive elections, see if you can find any disparity between campaigns. Are certain candidates handing out manufactured buttons, or printed sheets of paper with a safety pin? Are posters professionally printed, or drawn with a marker? Take a moment to think: who handed out candy, and who got your vote? There is something wrong with this question, though, because even if said candidate did not get your vote from purchasing candy and bribing you with it, the candidate still felt as though candy must be purchased to try to garner votes, instead of relying on leadership strengths, experience, or plans to improve the school.

However, 
what goes unsaid is how
much money
students are
spending on
campaigns,
and how
much students
should be allowed to
spend. There
are currently
restrictions on
when a candidate can hand
out campaign material, but there also needs to be limits on how much students spend on campaigns, and what they hand out. It isn’t right for kids to be putting so much of Mom and Dad’s money towards a campaign that could all be for nothing, and it is simply unfair to the kids who don’t have the money to spend on an expensive campaign, while also being completely irrelevant in terms of a candidate’s ability to lead. Remember, these elections are to choose the leaders of our school, not to get free candy.

This, though, brings us to another problem. The way campaigning works at our school, there is no chance to see through campaign shenanigans and actually know who a candidate is. Before voting in previous Student Elections, I had no idea what a candidate’s leadership skills, experience, or plans are, and this seems to be because the school makes it that way. Election season for Students Reps and Executives only lasts one week, and there is no chance to get to know any candidate. Yes, I could try to go talk to one myself, but there is no opportunity to compare two candidates and see who would be better for the school. There need to be actual ways to know the real side of the candidates, not just how funny or entertaining they are. We have an actual Forum at our school, why don’t we use it to hold debates between candidates? At best, we might actually learn something about our candidates and why we should elect them, and, at least by putting candidates to the public test we could differentiate the posers from the real-deals.

But, we don’t do that. We put bios in the Commons for our Homecoming Court, but nothing of the sort for the people that are sup- posed to lead the student body. Instead, we force people to rely on gimmicks to win votes, like spending money on campaign swag or making the funniest campaign speech. Shouldn’t it all be taken more seriously? Our current student body president, Andy Devine, said it himself: “Take it seriously, guys.” But, we can’t take student elections seriously, at least not as they are now.

While many hail it all as “one big popularity contest,” the potential our Student Government holds can be so much more. As a school, we need to take the initiative and take student elections seriously. Let’s get rid of the gimmicks– let’s have straightforward speeches, not jokes, and less emphasis on spending the big bucks to win votes. Let’s have actual chances to learn who our candidates are, let’s allow them on the morning announcements so we can see what they actually do! Let’s make candidates show some sort of moral fiber and plan for our school, some sort of idea on how to make our school better. These changes to campaigning at our school could make all the difference. Who knows what good ideas never gain traction because the candidate didn’t have a funny joke.