In April, Parker announced its closing for the remainder of the school year, leaving Student Government scrambling to find an alternative way to conduct the election process. After hours of meetings, Cabinet decided on a completely virtual election season with a two-week period of campaigning followed by a two week period of speeches and debates. Instead of the regular flyers in the hallways and the speeches during mandatory Student Government plenaries, candidates had to campaign completely on social media and take part in scheduled Zoom debates.

The two-week period, intended for speeches and debates began on the week of May 4 and continued through the week of May 11. Although these were previously held in Senate meetings and during Plenary, the challenge this year was that all debates and speeches had to be held via Zoom.

The week of May 4 began with the Social Justice Committee Debate on Monday, the Treasurer Debate on Tuesday, the SAC Debate on Wednesday, and finished with MX and DCA speeches during Friday’s plenary. The following week began with the DCA Debate on Monday, the first Presidential Debate on Tuesday, then the second Presidential Debate on Wednesday, and Senate and Treasurer speeches on Thursday, and it closed with Presidential Speeches in Plenary on Friday. Voting was opened via Google Forms later on Friday during G3.

The biggest uncertainty among Cabinet members and other participants in Student Government was voter turnout. Without the constant reminder in the hallways to vote, and without the mandatory plenaries to hear speeches, it is less likely that a student would go out of their way to vote virtually, according to Senate Head and Treasurer candidate Alex Schapiro. “I feel like the biggest issue is that we’re not sure about turnout. Usually, the speeches in Student Government are a really good way where almost the entire high school student body, normally, is in one room listening to the candidates speak,” Schapiro said. “And that’s a good way to get a grasp on the candidates if you don’t want to read their platforms or attend any of the other sponsored events.”

DCA and presidential candidate Carter Wagner noted that engagement will definitely go down. “There’s just nothing that can compare to the excitement that’s in the building on the Election Day when everyone is doing their last-ditch efforts and everybody’s talking and communicating,” Wagner said. “And really it’s like a community event, and I think it’s gonna be really hard to capture that.”

Voting day is the most important part of the election process, and this year is no different. There is no minimum percentage of the student body that is required to vote for there to be a valid election, so voter turnout is essential, according to Faculty Advisor Jeanne Barr. Even if a race received a total of three votes, and one candidate got two of them, that candidate would still win the election. “I’m hopeful that even if kids aren’t participating in every debate and everything,” Barr said, “they’re absorbing the excitement of the candidates.”

Before Parker closed in mid-March, Student Government passed a proposal in Plenary to change the manner in which the student body votes for elected positions. The proposal was to make voting an online process instead of the sheets of paper on which students check boxes for their votes. Because of this change, the actual voting process did not differ from if we had been in school, according to Executive Advisor Lindsay Carlin. What was not planned for, though, was that the candidates would not be able to promote their candidacy in person.

The campaigning process required the most deviation from the norm because there was no way to replicate the promotions that go on during school. In-person debates and speeches can be replaced with Zoom, albeit not with the same effect. But putting flyers on the walls, running a booth at Democrafest to promote one’s candidacy, and even talking in the hallways are all irreplaceable experiences. 

Cabinet had to create a set of guidelines on virtual campaigning and came to the conclusion that candidates were only permitted to use social media as a way to promote themselves and get their message out. “From a cabinet perspective,” Wagner said, “we’ve had a lot of trouble limiting how people are campaigning and figuring out what is allowed and what shouldn’t be allowed.”

Mass emails were not permitted by Student Government’s new guidelines, which is the most feasible way to communicate to the entire student body. Cabinet made a strong effort to not allow students’ inboxes to overflow with campaign emails, so they restricted it to social media only. 

“It’s a lot of trying to come up with solutions to do what we used to do, not being able to do it quite the way we used to do it and then struggling to find a new fix and a workaround,” Barr said.

Despite facing many challenges during this remote learning period, Student Government had to come together and agree on policies to implement in order for this year’s election season to run smoothly. While Schapiro, Wagner, and Barr agree that the new system would not achieve the same engagement and voter turnout as it usually would, Cabinet made a strong effort to make this process as close to normal as possible. “Student Government is such a strong institution,” Barr said, “because we’ve got these traditions that are so well understood and well known by the student body that even in this time of distance, we could fall right back into those and achieve our goals.”