School elections are not very polarizing, but they do tug at the heartstrings more than anything else. This election season, candidates tug at the bonds of loyalty around them, effectively taking the web so created by years of trust into a long running chaos of internal decision. The order of simple bonds is up-ended and thrown out into the ends of the earth as our friends vie for what is effectively an empty title. Yet, we make our decisions plainly and easily, almost always coming down on the side of our friends, colleagues, or acquaintances.

As a disclaimer, I must say that I will almost certainly vote for every candidate who also happens to be in IB. The moderating influence is the avoidance of bias, which we have engrained into our hearts.

Freshmen classes are expanding every year and are expected to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. So, in the future, their influence on school elections should increase as a voting block because they increase in size relative to everyone else.

The majority of candidates come from the junior and sophomore classes, which means that the freshmen are generally not polarized and not engulfed in the bias of friendship. With the most powerful determiner removed, the majority of freshmen vote on the basis of ‘who is funniest,’ ‘who is hottest,’ or ‘who seems the most confident.’ These are easily misjudged characteristics, especially with only one video and a speech.

If we were to transform the voting system from one of personality to one of issues, this would be cleared up considerably. But in our current time, we can expect the freshmen to vote in effectively random amounts with bias towards the funny and the handsome. If we were to change this system of character appeal to one of issues appeal, a new voter base of enfranchised and emotionally distanced actors would arise.

I happen to believe that freshmen vote for their own interests and for their own agendas. Yet, they are under-informed, very much like the voters in our larger democracy that vote on a whim of whose name they like more or of whose ads pandered to them more.

Our ongoing poster blitz is an example of this. Since the school’s administration prohibits negative campaigning, for good reason, the current style of advertising is so constrained to puns and Photoshop that all messages produce an ever-increasing number of candidates who are all either ignored or buried under a pile of rubbish.

To fix that, our school should introduce an optional video program for the candidates through which they can talk in advisories about something, anything to differentiate themselves from the others and to inform a populace of why they wants the votes.

This would be a change that is reminiscent of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fireside chats, and it would also provide something to do other than sit around idly in advisory. These videos would lend a voice to all the candidates while also fostering creativity. People would learn more about these random people who suddenly appeared on their screens asking for a vote, lessening the influence of personality politics and punny posters. This reform on the voting system will only better our chances of electing our future officers for the right reasons.