As SGA elections approach, it’s typical for the candidates to ask and hope that their friends will vote for them. The Student Government sponsors spirit days such as themed Thursday and other fundraisers. Prior to the in class elections, the student body is not informed of what each candidate has to offer and what they plan to do if elected, which can lead to students just voting for their friends as an out.
The elections don’t seem to affect people much, so when they are filling out the ballad, they typically select the candidate they are friends with or know well, not exactly who they believe will be the most beneficial for the school. Students don’t know how the SGA is run, because they aren’t feeling the need to pay attention and don’t care who wins or not, because the rest of the students aren’t involved. “I don’t really pay attention to SGA stuff so I guess I would probably vote for my friends, the school also doesn’t tell us about each candidate and what they plan to do,” freshman Hannah Mirza said.
Not much campaigning that goes on, so voters aren’t always aware of the ideas each candidate has to bring to the table. Learning what each candidate wants to improve here and what they plan to do at an SGA leader, should be the most important part, not who has the largest number of friends, “I usually vote for my friends because I know what they would do not really the other people,” sophomore Mollie Greenberg said.
Popularity is put to the test in all school elections that involve voting. Typically, the student who has the most friends has the greater chance of winning anything involving the student voice because it wasn’t brought up to them very far in advance. The problem is that while the administration is aware of SGA events, students don’t always watch the announcements, and read posters, so there is no way of them learning about it. It causes the students to not care as much about who wins or not, as well as spirit days and fundraisers, “Those theme Thursdays are kind of whatever,” freshman Allie Herman said.
Students want their voices to be heard, so logically having a close friend on SGA could result in having your own ideas put in motion. Besides spirit events, and other school fundraisers, the rest of the student population doesn’t usually know what goes on behind the scenes, “I just think if I vote for my close friend then they will help with issues that I want to be fixed,” freshman Julia Bogart said.
Emily Eichberg
Staff Writer
