While the nation was attentively following the Republican presidential race, Stuyvesant students stirred up some election controversy of their own. Last month, the disqualification of David Cahn and Jason Duong from the sophomore caucus election led to heated controversy, as the Board of Elections (BOE) stripped them of their win due to a few campaign posters they left around the building on Election Day. The student-run board cited the fact that the posters were not placed on bulletin boards, the designated areas for campaign posters, as an additional reason for disqualification. However, for most of the year, the BOE is an organization unseen and unheard. Its members decide upon campaign rules and organize the election process, but they are rarely put under public scrutiny due to the straightforward nature of most Stuyvesant elections.

The BOE is a subunit of the Student Union. However, according to senior and BOE co-chair Bumsoo Kim, “the Board of Elections is part of the SU but not influenced by the SU council. We work independently and don’t get any funding from the SU.”

Elections happen twice a year: in the fall for the current year’s freshman and sophomore class president and vice president, and in the spring for the next year’s junior class, senior class, and Student Union president and vice president.

“The Board of Elections aims to guarantee fair Student Union elections by reducing inequalities, such as popularity and financial advantage,” senior and BOE co-chair Cleo Nevakivi-Nevakivi-Callanan said.

In order to become a candidate for the Student Union presidency or vice presidency, students must be passing all of their classes and must create petitions with 100 signatures from students in all of the grades. In addition, the presidential candidate must be from the junior class and the vice presidential candidate from the sophomore class. Caucus candidates must get 50 signatures from their respective classes. In addition, candidates have to write a short personal statement delineating their platforms.

“We worked this year on improving the Board of Elections by publishing an election pamphlet to raise awareness, having members monitor SU meetings to record attendance for upcoming elections, and easing campaigning rules, which were extremely stringent in the previous years,” Nevakivi-Nevakivi-Callanan said.

The candidates have one week to campaign. They may only use the standard 8.5-by-11 paper as campaign material, and the posters may only be placed on bulletin boards. However, no more than three posters can be placed on each bulletin board, and the posters cannot contain profanity, slander, or other school-inappropriate messages or images. Other than the candidates themselves, official campaign managers are the only people who may distribute campaign materials. No campaigning is allowed on Election Day, and no posters may be up the day before and the day of elections; these two days are known as “zero tolerance days” for this reason. Online campaigning is also strictly forbidden, but the candidates and their campaign managers are to make their Facebook profiles available to the Stuyvesant community.

“There is no online campaigning because it is difficult for us to monitor and allows more popular students to get elected,” Nevakivi-Callanan said. A violation of any of the above policies results in a strike, and the candidate responsible loses a day of campaigning. Two violations result in a disqualification.

There are two rounds of elections. “In the primary elections, students can vote twice and [the] two pairs, president and vice president, with the most votes campaign for another week. Finally, there is a general election in which students can vote once. BOE counts the votes and sends results to Spectator and SU,” Nevakivi-Callanan said.

The Board of Elections continues to find ways to improve the election process. Changes that may be instituted include requiring a teacher recommendation for nomination, changing zero tolerance days, and further relaxing rules for the campaigning period.

“They should refrain from guidelines that are just silly, like the no-tolerance policy,” senior Suprita Datta said. “The posters don’t really have an effect.”

Students feel that having a Board of Elections in place to regulate the election process is a good idea, but many note that Stuyvesant elections are not as legitimate as they should be.

“BOE is a good idea because there needs to be someone to oversee the whole process and someone to set the rules or else it is just going to be open-ended,” senior Victoria Gong said. “However, I feel like most people know that the elections is about popularity. It would have been a good idea if they did have a debate that was broadcasted.”

Furthermore, when interviewed, many students responded that they did not know a Board of Elections existed. “I did not know what role the BOE plays in student elections or any other school activities,” freshman Steve Tam said. Tam added that he did not know how to vote or where to vote.

Every year, candidates dream up catchy slogans and print out Facebook profile pictures to put on their poster, but like in the rest of the nation, only a small percentage of the targeted population flocks to the voting polls. The BOE members attempt to uphold the fragile school democracy but, in the end, despite their best efforts, elections often devolve into popularity contests.

“I do think that, at a certain point, candidates try to do their best to gain as many votes [as possible],” Datta said. However, she added that “a lot of people are just apathetic. They either don’t know the platforms or what the candidates do, so it comes down to who you know and who you don’t know.”