Student Council Elections

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hi guys =D
Just wondering if any of you could offer me some advice for my campaign.</p>

<p>I'm currently a junior running for Student Council President (our school's system is a bit different; if I win, I will take office when I return as a senior next year). It's also really hardcore (we've got a big school and the administration really values the council's input). Student council is a really big thing for me. I've had two years of experience on Student Council as Rec. Secretary and Vice President (three, counting treasurer in middle school). It's really changed the way I think about things and it's helped me grow physically, mentally, and socially, but the truth is that I'm a bit paranoid this year.</p>

<p>Freshman year, I was running against six other extremely strong candidates for Recording Secretary (a position open only to sophomores). I'm a minority (Asian). As a freshman, I was the sensitive bookish type of guy, and to take a leaf from Cormier's book, I was the type of guy who would like a girl in secret and watch as the big shot hero rides away with her in the end. Needless to say, one of my opponents was the stereotypical popular girl (let's call her Kim), but I made an epic speech (basically playing themes from Saving Private Ryan and the anime Blood+ in the background while praising my school and my country and how I love everyone) and won.</p>

<p>Alright, on to sophomore year. Sophomore year, I had a LOT more friends and things were going a lot better. I joined a rock band and started to play for charity concerts with some very close friends and also participated in a volunteer effort in NYC and was also selected as a leader in wind ensemble among other things: my ECs completely transformed me. The bad thing was that I was running against possibly the most popular kid in the school. Let's call him Paul. Paul had the type of manipulative prowess that would make Machiavelli himself tremble in his shoes. I don't know how I did it but I won again. It was probably because I took classes with only freshmen (Latin), only sophomores (Spanish/History), only Juniors (PreCalc), and only seniors (AP Bio) so I was able to connect with a lotta people.</p>

<p>And now this year. This year, I have none of those advantages. Apparently, the administration decided to impose a running mate system (that each presidential candidate would have to select a running mate to run with them on the same ballot) which is cool, but makes things a lot more difficult, and the administration also greatly reduced the length of speeches (so I can no longer sing my heart out lol). I chose to run with one of my best friends (let's call him Fred for the sake of argument). Fred is a masterful dancer and a really popular guy (he's from the Phillippines). We're up against my old rival, Kim, from freshman year (also a junior right now) also running for President, who chose a sophomore as her running mate for Vice President, and she's hell bent on taking us down haha.</p>

<p>Any ideas on how Fred and I should run our campaign? And if I can't make an epic speech this year, do we still have a shot at winning?</p>

2

<p>Honestly, at my school there’s no use in campaigning. People are going to vote for their friends regardless of how qualified you are for the position.</p>

3

<p>do it the old fashioned way.
Tag the whole school with campaign posters and fliers.
Start a group/page on Facebook or Myspace & invite all your friends. Post statuses & message them telling people to vote for you.
last but not least, this is a method that always works for me: Buy 3 boxes of Otter Pops and either write “Vote for _______” with a permanent Sharpie or something or type it out on a piece of paper and wrap&tape it around the otter pop and hand it out at lunch, snack, afterschool</p>

4

<p>At my school three people ran, one puerto rican and two white kids. Both white kids campaigned fervently, and the puerto rican made like one poster (she only ran because she got extra credit in AP Gov.) However, when the speeches came she gave this crazy speech about how every white person in our school were ‘racists’ and convinced the 40% hispanic population in our school to vote for her.</p>

<p>The population among everyone else was split 30/30 among the other two candidates, so the crazy girl won.</p>

<p>So, my point is, try to find something to connect with your voters, and campaigning is worthless.</p>

5

<p>As said above, student council elections are already finished before they even begin.</p>

<p>However, I’d still go with comical edge. I know your speeches in the past have turned out great, but if you have to shorten it try it with comedy. I don’t know what the demographics are for your school, or what the interests are obviously. At my school people make videos that broadcast over our school network. I hear one of the most popular videos happened to be parody of some music video.</p>

<p>Other than that, use your friends as much as possible, word of mouth and persuasion are your key strategies.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, it’s hard to sway people when they already know who they will vote for before speeches are even made. That’s what happened @ my school, everybody votes for the friends (why I lost Student Council Prez election this year lol, stupid siblings :smiley: ) My speech was nearly 2 minutes over the allotted time, but it was funny, so people were engrossed. It is a massive popularity contest, but good luck :)</p>

7

<p>Lol… in our school we had three people run for three positions. Our student council basically doesn’t do anything except plan certain events. The elections are totally a popularity contest, at least where I’m from.</p>

8

<p>I’ll give you an advice many people tend to ignore. Which is sad, since it tends to work more than 50% of the time. </p>

<p>1.) Prepare a REALLY good speech. Be calm. Be cool. Take a deep breath. Imagine you’re going to a battle field, and you’re giving an inspirational speech to your troops. </p>

<p>2.) Be PASSIONATE about your speech. Make sure what you mean reflect during your speech. Students love candidates who are good speakers. Make sure it shows.</p>

<p>3.) Do not be afraid.</p>

9

<p>If you’re loaded, bribe your voters (free Visa gift card to one of your lucky voters!).
If you can pretend to be gay, be every girl’s BFF (the female vote is very crucial, since Kim’s a girl).
If you’re connected, get a politician to vouch for your awesomeness (Barack Obama!).
If you’re old school, hand out personalized candy (I vote for those with the yummiest)</p>

<p>I ran for Student Council as a rising sophomore and lost. But there were 17 other people running for position, and I’m not exactly popular. Hopefully you’ll be luckier than me.</p>