election

I was thinking about how we learn about elections and voting. Some of us are taken to the polls by parents or grandparents, but for most of us we learn about running for office first-hand in school - during student council elections.

The high school that I graduated from, an all-girls Catholic college prep, had a very interesting take on elections. For starters, if you ran, you simply ran for student council, and not a particular office. It seemed pretty odd to me, but it was explained that this took the ugliness out of elections.

Since no one was running for office, there were no posters in the hallway saying "Vote Ashley for President". I am not 100% sure, but I know that campaigning of any kind was kept to a minimum. If we were allowed posters, everyone running was allowed the same space. I want to say though that were weren't allowed posters or buttons or cupcakes or candy.

The one thing I know for sure is that we gave speeches in front of the class. I think my class fit into the Chemistry lab. I think we did it during lunch, but I could be wrong. We had a specific amount of time to explain why we were running, and how we would serve the student council.

Then everyone voted. This is where it got even more interesting. Since as I mentioned, there were no candidates to place under an office, every one's name was simply placed on the ballot. You then ranked your classmates in the order you preferred them, from 1 to the number of candidates.

The candidate who received the lowest number, was asked which position she wanted to hold. Most likely she would choose to be president, but she could pick whichever office she felt suited her. Then the student who got the second lowest number would pick, and so on, until all of the offices were filled. Somehow it worked out, and the person people expected to be president or treasurer, ended up in those roles.

I actually ran for office for my senior year. Of course that meant we held elections in our junior year, earlier than I would have expected. Anyone running for office was required to get a permission slip signed by her parents. It seemed a bit much given that you had not been elected, yet I guess it kept there being problems with someone winning and not be able to serve. It was a good lesson for when I worked in a company that required I get permission to apply for an internal position before I had gotten the job (or the job had even technically been approved by management).

I still remember going into my mother's room to get my permission slip signed. She was still asleep. I didn't want her to make a big deal about my running for student council. I was quite vague about what the permission slip was for. I feared that if I didn't win, I would never hear the end of it. She groaned, but signed it. I did tell her what it was for.

I didn't win. Despite trying to take the politics out of the election, it still boiled down to basic human nature. People voted for the girls they knew and liked. I was the new girl, and as such, an outsider. I talked about new ideas, when my fellow students really were not interested in change. There were only 100 girls in my class, and many had been together for a long time. I was devastated when the call came that I had not won a place on the student council. I think there were only two of in this position. I had also tried out for the flag team, and was the only one not to make it despite having two years of drill team. I was notified of both of these failures on the same evening, and still showed up the next day to school.

My moment did come though. I was made captain of the Academic Decathlon team. I had won over one of the teachers, a nun, and she lobbied for me. Since it was the first year the school had entered, I was put in charge of calling and getting the details. I remember when I met the woman I had spoken with - she was shocked to learn I was a student, and not a teacher.


on the night stand :: Run