Student council uses the procedure of runoff voting (two-round system voting). For a well-described explanation of the procedure, visit this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-round_system

In runoff voting, a first vote narrows down a large list of candidates vying for one position to just two final candidates. A final vote then determines the winner.

Here are the details for how our runoff voting process will work:

1. All candidates will begin campaigns on Monday, April 15th and will campaign through the whole week. The primary vote will take place at the end of the week on Friday, April 19th; the ballot will release at 10:37 AM and close at 3:00 PM. 
   1. For positions in which only one candidate is running, the one candidate will be voted into their position by acclamation. In other words, that one candidate will automatically win their position. This is extremely rare. 
   2. For positions in which only two candidates are running, no primary vote will take place. These two candidates will only participate in the final vote at the end. 
   3. After primary voting has ended, the two candidates with the highest election scores (calculated by 25% teacher recommendation, 75% student vote) out of all the candidates for that position will advance to the final round of voting. No other candidates will advance; their campaigns will end at the close of Friday, April 15th.
2. The next week, the final two candidates will continue campaigning until Wednesday's final vote during advisement. The final vote will take place strictly during advisement; the ballot will be opened at 12:01 PM and will be closed at 12:21 PM.
3. The candidate with the highest score (once again, 25% teacher recommendation, 75% student vote) will win the position. Results should come out by the end of the day. 

Why are we doing this?

• It mimics voting systems in most representative democracies, from Finland to Peru to our own US of A itself. 
• In the past, when 8-10 candidates run for one position and we only do one round of voting, the vote gets split. Because of how many people are running, a candidate may win with, say, only 15% of the vote (since the rest of the vote gets split so much between all the other candidates). This 15% popular vote is most definitely not representative of the wishes of the full student body. Choosing the top two candidates for each position and having the student body re-vote for one of only two candidates results in one candidate receiving a true absolute majority of the vote (greater than 50% of the vote).
• A candidate who received the most amount of primary votes may not win the election as this system gives students a chance to reevaluate and potentially cast a different vote. 

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to use our brand new chat feature or contact us at [email protected]! 

Much love, 
Your Student Council