This year’s ASB presidential election was conducted online, instead of with traditional paper ballots, with junior Aakash Thumaty being elected as ASB president with a margin of 4 votes (357 to 353) over current ASB vice president Luke Salin. The switch to online voting was made by the Elections Commission. 

“This was a much quicker and efficient way to run the election system, and it worked really smoothly,” senior Josh Pi said.

Pi also said that the main purpose of switching to the online elections was to eliminate the time dedicated to voting during class and counting votes. The commission decided to change to online voting because it would reduce class time spent voting and make vote counting automatic.  Students could vote at any time on election day.

One problem with online voting was that some students’ passwords did not work. Those who reported these issue were helped by members of the Elections Commission, who entered their account information in the office.

Another potential issue was that the elections may not have been the best representation of student opinion, as about 500 of the school’s 1,400 students did not vote.

However, overall, the online elections went well.

“The class elections are going to be online as well, and from now on all of the elections will probably be online,” Pi said.

The ASB so far has four other members besides Thumaty (other positions will be announced later.) Junior Nihar Agrawal will be vice president. Sophomore Mitali Shanbhag will be treasurer. Sophomore Spring Ma will be secretary.