It's that time again, Student Senate elections. I'm going to start off today with the final four; the top four candidates that are pretty much a lock before the election week even began. First lets look at some of the factors that have the most weight in this upcoming elections, and some that are overrated.
What matters:
Name recognition
From having your name in the TD, to being in social spotlight and gossip circles, name recognition is the single most important factor in the election. When it comes down to that weekend vote, you know that your friends have your back, but its whether that quiet girl in the back of your history class remembers your name on the night the ballot goes out that is the real swing vote
Associations:
The most active on campus, are the most active in the polls. Most people don't care about senate and it is why usually not even a majority of campus will vote. The people who do vote are the visible ones who probably are involved with 2 or more clubs on campus. The largest of these associations is greek life, comprised of around 30% of campus. This is why election after election, greeks continued to dominate the votes because greeks recognize other greek members.
What doesn't matter:
Platforms
You can tell us that you're going to renovate greek path, or that you will improve the bell center weight room, but in the end they are usually empty promises and the campus recognizes it as such. Similar to Presidential elections, most people don't really know the platforms of who they are voting for, and those that take the time to actually research the candidates, are usually the hardest to win over anyways so mine as well keep trying to get that quiet girl in the back of your history class.
Posters
Posters have initial value of raising awareness about the election, but in the end as boards become cluttered and people begin to get sick of the eyesore that candidates faces can become, posters do not win over votes. Unique placement of signs can give you a small boost, but the two seconds they see your poster will only maintain their name short term in their head before they think of more pressing issues, like how much I want a buffalo chicken wrap.
Juggernaut Incumbents
Megan and Ben
These two will most likely finish in the top two in total votes based on sheer name recognition. From being involved in greek life, to being the in public spotlight with senate positions, both these candidates have a guaranteed seat. Although Ben has had some rough patches with bad publicity under the impeachment proceeding, his name recognition permeates through campus and that quiet girl in the back of your history class will most definitely be voting for him.
Manufactured Incumbents
Laura and Seejo
If you run in the spotlight of an executive election, you are most likely going to win. In Seejo's case he was able to compete in against a very small stage of candidates and some voters automatically think anyone running for a top office should be more than qualified for a lower senate position. Laura, like Seejo, has never been a Senator-at-Large but having other spots on senate as well as being an upperclassmen will be enough to land them a spot near the top.
Tomorrow, I'll expand the analysis to who I think will be in the Elite 8, and showcase the front runners for the other non at-large elections.
*if you find 26 grammatical mistakes in this update, I will give you a lollipop
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1) First sentence, a semi-colon is not right, a comma would have been much better.
ReplyDelete2) Second sentence: "lets" is a contraction for "let us," so it should be "let's"
3) "In this upcoming elections." should be "in THESE upcoming elections."
4) "in social spotlight" you need the word "the" in there, buddy
5) in that same paragraph, "its" should be "it's"
6) a comma is not needed after "campus"
7) "continued" should be "continue" to keep with the tense of the sentence
8) Bell Center should really be capitalized
9) presidential should not be capitalized
10) the word is "might," not "mine"
11) there should be a comma after "end"
12) use either "2" or spell it out "two." Don't alternate between the 2/two.
13) if you use the word "they," use it again. Don't use "I," in the "I want a buffalo chicken wrap."
14) you don't need the word "in" when talking about Seejo
15) "stage of candidates and voters" is part of a compound sentence, meaning you need a comma after candidates.
16) You should also probably have a comma after "Seejo's case," as it is an introductory part of the sentence
17) You need a comma after "Senator at large"
18) Also, there is no reason to hypenate senator at large. If you said, "Senator-at-large candidates," then it should be hypenated. Used alone as a noun, no hyphen.
19) You need a comma after "Senator at large"
20) Who should be whom. Duh.
21) In the first sentence: "that are a lock" should be "that were a lock" in keeping with the tense in the rest of the sentence
22) 30% should be spelled out — 30 percent
23) TD should be spelled out as Times-Delphic, then abbreviated whenever used again.
24) You need a hyphen when writing "Times-Delphic." I knew you'd forget so I thought I would just as well mention it.
25) "candidates faces" is possessive. "candidate's faces."
26) "to being the in public spotlight." Obviously wrong.
Where's my lollipop?
BOOM ROASTED!!!
ReplyDeleteLove you, Adil.
ReplyDelete