Friendly Reminder about Voter Responsibility in Council Elections

The HHS Council blesses itself with the legislative power to meaningfully affect school policy. In turn the rest of the student body should be respectful of that power by voting both carefully and thoughtfully.

Please make sure before signing the nomination sheet or voting for a Council candidate looking for reelection to investigate and study their voting record and inquire about their conduct and attendance in Council. One example of going about that is using their fellow committee members as references.

Just because someone has been on Council for the past three years doesn’t mean that they deserve to be reelected. Do some research and make the decision yourself.

For new candidates, ask them why they are running, what they want to do while in Council, and why they think they would do a good job of representing you and the rest of the student body.

If you are convinced, sign their nomination sheet while stating that you look forward to evaluating their performance in regards to what they’ve just told you when reelection season comes around the next year.  If you are not convinced, politely decline to sign their sheet and explain why you won’t to give them an idea of what to do better.

Furthermore, take into account what a candidate has decided to put on their campaign poster. Achievements, goals and issues listed should give you better confidence in a nominee rather than baby pictures and low quality internet memes lazily plastered onto a piece of poster paper. Any candidate who chooses to put up lazy, “clever” (i.e. obnoxious), or generally uninformative posters should not be considered as a serious candidate until they have the information and reasoning of why they deserve your vote on the poster.

Remember that you’re voting for someone to represent you, not your best friend or the most popular person in your grade. It was Council and its elections being little more than glorified popularity contests that almost got it dissolved in 1970. It is vital that every election the student body prevent Council from entering this decadent state.

Voting is valued highly in American culture, and it should always be taken seriously, even on the high school level. If these simple and easy steps are followed, you’d be sure to have a great and responsible Council for next year.

Council nomination forms are due at the end of the day Wednesday April 27th and the election is on Friday May 6th.