Online voting will be replaced by Election Convention due to school closure from COVID-19. The online voting will be open to all freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, and candidates will be determined through popular vote.
Online voting will be held right after spring break and will be divided into two rounds. The first round of voting will be held from April 6th to 7th, and the second round will be held from April 8th to 9th, with the results being released on April 10th.
“[The administration was] talking about modifying [Election Convention] because we do not even know definitively when we will be back to school,” junior class president Olga Barbashova said. “Ideally we would have everyone gather but special circumstances require innovation.”
Like previous voting seasons, each candidate will need two victory points to win the position. When candidates achieve a majority vote in a voting round they will earn a victory point. Some candidates already have one victory point from the primaries that were carried out before school closure.
Some students, such as junior Xuelin Huang, are relieved that they will be able to still elect students for ASB positions.
“Having a new online platform instead of Election Convention is great,” Huang said. “We can minimize the influence that COVID-19 brings to school activities.”
Online voting prevents further delay of the election of ASB candidates, but some students worry that voting participation may be affected.
“If Election Convention would have proceeded properly with the delegates from homerooms representing all students, then almost everyone would participate in it,” says Huang. “Popular vote reduces the amount of students that participate because not everyone will go online and vote.”
Other students believe online voting to be the perfect way to carry out the election of ASB candidates since more students tend to prefer online activities.
“Online voting will not affect my participation,” junior Michelle Schuler said. “Moving the voting process online allows the election convention to run without a school setting which really makes it easier for us, the voters.”
Changes have also been made to ASB appointed interviews and council elections. ASB appointed interviews will be the week following the online voting and will be held over a video platform. Council elections will also be the same week as ASB appointed interviews.