If a visitor were to come to the Harriton High School campus, one thing would be painfully clear; we are in the middle of a Student Council election. Since the beginning of the primary round, the walls of our school have been lined with campaign slogans and posters trying to catch our eyes and our votes.
This year, a new system was created and implemented that allowed more students to run for the leadership positions they desired. Each hopeful was able to create a short video clip to persuade the student body to vote for him or her in the primary election. After watching the clips in advisory, Harriton students were asking to participate in the primary elections by going online, via their school e-mail accounts, and voting for their favorite candidates.
Four presidential candidates were ultimately chosen to run, as well as two candidates for each other contending office. If only two students were running for one position, such as in this year’s vice-presidential race, they were exempt from this round and automatically qualified for the general election. The students with the largest number of votes passed on to the general election.
Now that the primary has concluded, what are the candidates doing to prepare for the general election? Kat Pasani, a president hopeful, tells us, “speech writing is now the main focus.”
Each candidate has been focusing on writing the perfect speech that shows he/she is the perfect person for his/her desired job. Greg Costa, a junior running for vice-president, explained, “the goal is to find the perfect balance between funny and serious.”
Candidates will want to both connect to and convey their ideas to the student body. In previous years, students have often opted for the candidates with this “funny and serious” tone, choosing rapper Dhruv Pillai and jokester Kai Chang as our current president and treasurer, respectively. It seems that the student body desires leaders that they can connect to, yet will also lead the school well.
This Thursday, May 9, the Harriton student body will gather in the auditorium to hear these well-rehearsed speeches. Candidates running for Sergeant-at-Arms are sophomore Aliza Berger and junior Benjamin Brodo. Running for Treasurer is junior Cem Atillasoy and sophomore Dan Liu. For Secretary we have candidates of junior Staci Dubow and sophomore Ben Hewitt. For Vice President, juniors Lindsey Barrison and Greg Costa will be competeing. And lastly, our Presidential candidates are juniors Jason Herrmann, Aaron Lazar, Katherine Pisani, and Sitara Soundararajan.
Over the years, Harriton has counted paper ballots from every student to determine the winners of the election. This year, everything has gone digital, but not without some dissention within Student Council. Many of the candidates believe that fewer students will vote using this online forum, as many are still unsure of how to access their student emails.
A petition was even created by some of these candidates to maintain paper ballets. However, the current officers worked with administrators and Student Council sponsor, Mr. Robinson, to work out a way for online voting to be less of a hassle. Although this switch to an electronic election raised some concerns, several candidates have become more accepting of the new system, as it is here to stay.
Whomever your favorite candidates are for student government, this election is sure to be a close race that will require the attention of the Harriton student body.
