On Wednesday, March 6th, the ASB elections for the 2019-2020 school year took place.

The elections were held until Friday, March 8th, giving students ample time to vote for those who they believed should play a role in next year’s ASB government. Voting was carried out on https://quartz.voting4schools.com/, with the process being as simple as entering in one’s school ID number, entering in their birthday, and then voting for the candidates they deemed suitable for office.

There are four titles for ASB elections: president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary. Only one individual can take on the role of each aforementioned title. This means competition can be fierce. This year, there were two students (both juniors) running for ASB President: Lauren Reid and Brandon Moreno. For ASB Vice President, there were three students running: Veronica Shepard, Chrystien Ontiveros, and Brenna Manthey. For ASB treasurer, there were also three students running: Evan Isaac, Aolani Wenceslao, and Kaitlyn Briones. For ASB Secretary, there were two students running: Jasmin Copeland and Imani Speed. All of these students vigorously campaigned (posters, cards, social media posts, videos, etc) in order to get their names out there and have the best chance at winning their positions in office.

The winners were announced on March 13th on @qhhsactivities Instagram. The post announcing the winners garnered over 200 likes, possibly indicating that at least some people were happy with the results. The post announced that the upcoming 2019-2020 ASB President is Brandon Moreno, currently a junior, ASB Vice President is Veronica Shepherd, currently a junior, ASB Treasurer is Evan Isaac, currently a junior, and ASB Secretary is Imani Speed, currently a junior.

Since seniors can’t run and freshmen are very unlikely to win (since it would only be their first year in ASB at QHHS), that left the sophomores and juniors to battle it out. Clearly, the juniors may have had the upper hand, as they have more experience and perhaps more influence in ASB. This also raises the question of whether these elections are simply a popularity contest. Although, it is still crucial that QHHS continues holding elections like this, as it gives an opportunity for the students to decide what happens to their school. This form of Democracy is critical to allowing students to understand they are just as important and influential as those who work for the school, as we couldn’t have QHHS without the students.