The primary elections for Student Union (SU) President and Vice President, Junior Caucus, and Senior Caucus were held on Tuesday, May 29th. The top two tickets of each election will advance to the general elections to be held on Wednesday, June 6th.
This year’s voter turnout proved to be disappointing. “Only a small fraction of the student body voted in this year’s primaries,” junior Jamila Ma said. “Last year, the voter turnout was almost double.”
The Board of Elections (BOE) believes that the low number of voters this year is due to the small number of candidates running, said senior and BOE director Julia Rabkin. “Last year voters cared more,” she said. “Last year, people demonstrated more moral fiber and really cared about the school.”
In addition, the lack of candidates running this year plays a factor in the number of voters. The two parties that ran for junior caucus, for example, automatically advanced to the General Elections.
In an attempt to get more students to vote, the SU and BOE planned with the Social Studies Department to have social studies teachers bring their classes down during the day to vote for the candidates in the general elections.
“It’s still anybody’s game because now a lot more people will vote,” said sophomore James Kim. “It might hurt us or help us.”
The primaries were also hampered by controversy from the candidates’ campaigning tactics. Campaigning for the SU executive positions, junior Marta Bralic and sophomore Samantha Whitmore posted what they labeled “Secret” posters, which were meant to reveal negative aspects about the SU. The SU denied the validity of the posters while counter-posters were quickly created.
Bralic and Whitmore quickly corrected their mistakes. “There was a misunderstanding,” said Bralic. “We got our information from one of the current budget directors of the SU and someone on the faculty. We just thought that more money should be spent, but people got too caught up on the issue.”
Bralic and Whitmore were also suspended from campaigning on May 24 because they violated BOE campaign regulations by having more than one poster on one bulletin board.
“We knew there would be no advantage of having two of our signs on a bulletin board,” said Bralic. “It’s very possible that someone moved our signs [...] In that respect I think that [our penalty] was unfair.”
Seniors Andrew Kim and Vivian Liu also received a penalty for a violation and were not allowed to campaign on May 30 and 31. Their pamphlets were printed on 2 x 3 inch cards, while the BOE rules for campaigns only allow pamphlets to be printed on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper.
“It was our mistake but it was an honest mistake,” said Kim. “I thought it was pretty unfair, I guess we really didn’t deserve it [...] If that’s the final word, that’s the final word.”
Despite the controversy, this year’s candidates will continue to campaign until the General Elections. “It’s really an exciting process,” said Ma.
Correction: It was misstated that senior Marta Bralic and junior Samantha Whitmore hung up and distributed “Truth” posters. They distributed and hung “Secret” posters.