Written by Sarah Lehman and Sarah Marks
In response to the confusion over who really won the student election last year, students will vote for their class representatives on Voting4schools.com, a private server that only allows students with a designated password to vote, and only allows students to vote one time. “In addition, we have an automated end date to the votes so there is no confusion about the election deadline,” said leadership teacher Michael Amoroso. “We learned from our mistakes last year.”
In that election, some email addresses sent in multiple votes, students with emails outside of the district voted, and students of all grades could submit votes for any candidate. There was no clear end date set for voting, so when the final tally was counted it did not match up with voting records.
That will all change this year, and senior leadership student Annabel Baxter explained. “We realized that the main issues with last year’s elections were people voting more than once, and non M-A students casting votes. With the new software, we are able to create an account for each current M-A student that we are able to keep track of, to regulate votes,” she said.
Despite the increase in voting security, rumors are circulating that some students are buying votes. “You cannot buy your votes. That is not allowed,” said Amoroso.
Although this software cost about $400 according to Amoroso, there are perks besides security. Baxter noted, “Another nice thing about Voting4schools is that the contestants are able to post a short bio along with an image next to their names so students are reminded of who is who when voting. Overall, the goal is to improve the quality of the class president elections at M-A and create a fair and transparent process.”
Voting begins Monday, May 13 at 11:00 AM and closes on Thursday, May 16 at 11:59 PM.
