Primer: Presidential Elections
Political Union will look much different from usual today, Monday, Feb. 27. There will be no debate. Instead, because we have entered the last few weeks of the winter quarter and the current executive board term is ending, today is our presidential election. We will elect two new Co-Presidents (Our fearless heads of state) to lead the executive board and the club overall in the spring. Anyone who has attended at least one Political Union event this year is eligible to vote. In this primer, I will introduce you to the candidates—though, in all likelihood, you probably know some or all of them already—and outline the principal features of the election process.
All the candidates have ample qualifications for the position, each having served on the executive board for at least one year. I know them all personally and would be happy to see any of them as a Co-President. In alphabetical order by last name, the candidates are:
Yasmeen Mohamed Rafee (she/her)
A junior in her second year on exec, Yasmeen is on the Finance Committee.
Erica Schmitt (she/her)
A sophomore in her first year on exec, Erica is on the Social Committee.
Parker Stava (he/him)
A sophomore in his first year on exec, Parker is my fellow Blog Editor.
The election will follow an ordered procedure meant to ensure that all three candidates have ample opportunity to communicate their goals for the club and respond to any questions from the voters. It will go like this:
Our current Co-Presidents—Sonia Peters and Will Secker—will start things off with an overview of the election. They will, among other things, specify the length of each non-speech portion of the election.
Each candidate will then have two to four minutes for a speech in which they will provide an overview of their aims for the club over the next year.
Next, the voters will be permitted to ask questions of the candidates.
Following the question period, the candidates will leave the room, and the current Co-Presidents will comment on the strengths and weaknesses of each.
An open forum will begin, with voters allowed to share their thoughts on any of the candidates and respond to points made by other voters.
Finally, each voter will cast two votes, which can go to one or multiple candidates. The current Co-Presidents will count every vote, and the two candidates with the most votes will be declared the election winners.
Join us on Monday, Feb. 27, at 7 pm in Scott Hall 212 to elect our two new Co-Presidents.
"I Voted sticker" by US Department of State is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.