Posters with catchy slogans plaster the school walls in preparation for the main event: Democrafest. As election season is upon us, there’s been a lot of discussion over what truly decides who wins what positions.  Do those posters actually make a difference? Let’s be honest –  most students have made up their minds before they even hear the candidates speak.  I’ve heard elections are just a popularity contest, or that the same last names win every year. Other students disagree, saying that it’s just the people that deserve to win that do win. I’m somewhere in between.
But what I do know is that posters, speeches, and food are only going to sway the few students that are still undecided. In the poll that Desiree Shafaie sent out on April 27, all of the six respondents mentioned food at least once with the exception of the senior Sanford Miller. We as a student body tend to vote for those whose names we recognize, or who we’re friends with, or who has the best food––more than anything else, and this needs to change.

Full disclosure: I happen to be running for Senate Head with a great group of people against a pretty impressive group. This is in no way a campaign speech or promotion for my group. Go ahead, vote for the other group. Just please, vote for them because you think they would be the best for the position.
It seems to me like the people we “know” are the people with the last names that matter. Could this just be that siblings have similar personalities, and if one has run for a position, the other is likely to as well? Probably not. Could it be that students with older siblings feel more welcome in the Student Government as a whole and are not afraid to run? Probably. But more likely our Student Government mimics real American electoral politics. The Clintons, the Bushes, the Kennedys, we see the same names repeating themselves because people vote for which name on the ballot looks the most familiar.
Does this diminish the power of the student body and question the validity of the elections and campaigns? Maybe, but until we definitively stop voting based on who’s the funniest, or whose name we recognize, we can’t harness the power of our ability to create change in our own school. So please, when you are handed a piece of paper on Friday 20, actually think about which name you write a little check mark next to, and use your power to make a change – you’ll have gotten the food either way.