With Student Union election results coming out this week, after voting took place last week, students and teachers discussed how informed they felt about this year’s campaigns.
Between social media posts, physical posters hanging in the school hallways, and a debate, candidates do a great deal to ensure that student voters learn about their candidacies. A range of interviews with voters shows an electorate that might not be that different from the wider country: some know very little about the election, some know only about the races that matter to them, and some are following it all very closely.
In certain cases, students might be more likely to know about a race if they have a friend in it.
“Honestly, I’m not informed at all. Sometimes I probably only know a few candidates because they’re my friends,” said Sophomore Lesley Linzan. “Other than that I’m not really taking a close look at their campaigns or actually taking in any information.”
Others are more comfortable with details about the races that relate to their grade.
Freshman Haley Shin said, “I’m somewhat informed about a couple of them, mainly the freshmen.”
Haley also indicated that campaigns online have been more effective than in person campaigns, with it being easily more accessible and capable of reaching a wider audience. “In school, I did see posters, but I did pay more attention to the videos and the reels they made online,” Haley said.
Though teachers do not vote, the students who end up winning may end up working with or impacting the faculty. Two teachers spoke to us about how informed they feel about this year’s election.
English teacher Katherine Yan also said, “I’ve only seen the posters and I recognize students that have been in my class before.” She said, however, that “students are representative of the student body” rather than teachers should be more informed about the election.
English teacher Jude Binda said that given this is his first year at Townsend Harris, “Most of what I know about the candidates and the race [election] is just based on what I see in the hallways. I feel like no one has explicitly really explained to me how it all works or the criteria.”
He said it is important to be more informed about the election and student leaders. One reason he discussed involved students needing to know how to turn a good idea they have for the school into a reality: “If somebody who just has an idea, [or has] an idea for a fundraiser, [or wants] to go on this trip—having a ladder of people to refer to is a really good thing for people to know about.”
Voting for the general election began on May 13 and ended on May 14. All that’s left is to find out who the winners are.
