This year, after an unanimous vote among the seven members of the elections commission, voting returned to the classrooms for freshman elections at the start of the school year. Last year, ASB and class elections took place in the quad during lunch, an experiment that received mixed responses from students.

Although voting in the quad simulated a more realistic voting experience, students found voting in classrooms to be much more accessible.
“[Voting in classrooms] was convenient because we didn’t have to use our own time,” said freshman Dylan Jew.
To make it as convenient as possible for teachers, voting was conducted during announcements; even so, a few teachers required reminders to pass out ballots to their students.
Issues arose behind the scenes as well, as the elections commission scrambled to count the votes on time.
“At first it was pretty chaotic because there were so many votes,” said junior elections commissioner Carol Wu. “And for one of the positions in the final elections, it was really close, so we had to recount it two more times to make sure it was correct.”
Amidst all of the beginning-of-the-year chaos, the freshman class officers were chosen. The winners of this year’s election were Shireen Kaul as president, Joanna Lee as vice president, Evelyn Lee as secretary, Amin Mirzadegan as treasurer and Suzannah Osekowsky and Kiki Shim as class representatives. These students will be preparing to organize their first Homecoming, along with up to two additional class representatives chosen from the candidates of the final elections who did not win in their respective offices.
Prospects seem bright for this year’s spirited freshman class as a total of 16 freshmen stepped up to the plate this year as candidates in the freshman elections. Now it’s time for the new officers to learn the ropes as they assume the responsibilities of their class.
“We got a really hard theme [for Homecoming],” said Kaul, “but all of the officers are going to try our hardest to make it fun for everyone.”