School Leader Vote or Facebook Quiz?
By Nathaniel Dunbar and The Proctor Press
To vote in a democracy is to have a voice. It’s how individuals make their opinions heard and influence the direction of their government. Having an election system that is clear and transparent is essential to ensure that the voice of the people is properly represented.
During the 2015–2016 school year, Proctor changed its election system for school leader. Up until four years ago, students and faculty simply circled two names from a list of candidates running for school leader. In the current voting system, which the school adopted in April of 2016, students and faculty rate school leader candidates on a 1 through 5 scale by a variety of characteristics such as “reliability” and “determination.”
Many students, however, don’t understand this voting system. After casting their votes in this spring’s recent school leader election, many students wondered if their vote even counted at all.
“I feel like [the election system] is unclear… The system has never made me confident that this [candidate] is the candidate that I’m voting for,” remarked Tommy Carey, a two-year senior. “It’s like a black box,” Carey continued, “we see what goes in and what comes out, but we have no idea what happens in the middle.”
Like Carey, many students think that Proctor’s character-rating system leaves students voiceless and confused. Three-year junior, Ryan Kellogg remarked, “Honestly, [the rating system] should just be Yes or No.”
A recent Proctor Press survey about the election system at PA found that 83 percent of students said that they don’t think Proctor’s voting system is transparent or fair. While not a scientifically-accurate poll, this simple survey indicates that Proctor students are clearly dissatisfied with the current voting system.
Considering that the election of the school leader is the one time during year that students are directly allowed to vote, the lack of support for the system is telling. Asked if students think the school should change the voting system, 84 percent of students polled said, Yes.
Furthermore, frustration with the system seems to be growing within the student body. For example, Reed Simon, a four-year senior described the voting system this way:
“It feels scammy and fake, like a Facebook quiz to find your true best friend, where you just slide around random numbers.”
Proctor students are upset at the lack of transparency in our voting system. In particular, students are unclear how the “votes” are tallied, as Carey explained after voting in the recent election: “It almost feels as if you didn’t know who you were voting for at the end of the day.” If our survey is any indication, Carey isn’t the only one who thinks this way.
Clarity and transparency are essential to every democratic system. In the U.S. Presidential election, for example, every single vote is tallied and made public hours after state polls close. In contrast, after the Proctor school leader election, as Simon explains, “We never get to see numbers; we never get to see the rankings.”
This lack of transparency leaves many students feeling like the school leader elections are contrived, leaving many with a sense of unease and suspicion. Many students feel as though the faculty simply do not trust them with the responsibilities of voting. “I feel like [the faculty] keep it ambiguous,” speculates Carey, “so that they can choose the student leader they want.”
Proctor students, in general, don’t feel properly represented through our current election system. This leaves students feeling voiceless in the decision making that goes on at school. Going forward there should be an open and thorough discussion about the voice of student leadership and the future of our voting system. Bringing trust, clarity, and transparency back into the student leader election system should be a priority next fall. While finding the perfect voting system is going to be very hard, if not impossible, something has to change, as right now a majority of the student body feels voiceless and powerless in shaping the future direction of the school.
