On April 30 at midnight, the voting poll for the 2013-2014 student representative election was opened. The category in which each candidate was placed in was based on his or her grade and position in which they chose to run for. These positions included Sophomore Class President and Vice President, Junior Class President and Vice President, Senior Class President and Vice President, Student Body President and Vice President, Student Body Secretary, Student Body Treasurer and Publicity Producer.

The results of the election were shared with the student body on May 3 during announcements with clear winners for every section except for representation of a Student Body Treasurer, Publicity Producer and the 2013-2014 Sophomore Class.

In the original election, no students ran for Student Body Treasurer or Publicity Producer so no winners were chosen. However, there are now two current candidates that will be chosen by the Parkway Executive Board after the 2012-2013 school year comes to a close on May 23.

The Sophomore Class candidates ended with a tie between current freshmen, Hope Emerson and Stephen Zang. After a second vote, Emerson and Zang tied again, leading to a Co-Presidency with one another.

The Junior Class officers will be current sophomores, Aron Tesfai, President and Charlie Huff, Vice President.

“I chose who to vote for by looking at the candidate with the most experience with leadership roles and is the most involved in our school,” sophomore Alya Bajwa said.

The Senior Class will be represented by current juniors, Laura Santangelo, President, and Kemone Lindo, Vice President.

Lastly, the new Student Body President for next year will be current junior, Yasmin Younis. The new Student Body Vice President will be current junior, Ezgi Ilhan and Student Body Secretary will be current junior, Rigel Robinson.

“It was easy to choose who to vote for to represent the upcoming senior class and the entire student body for the next year since I know all of the candidates that ran,” junior Noreen Webster said. “I voted for my new Class President and Vice President and my new Student Body President, Vice President and Secretary by choosing the person who I thought would do the best job according to their personalities. Reading their Officer Paragraphs was also an extremely large deciding factor in who to vote for.”

Although Webster read into each candidate and was thorough in deciding who to vote for, she doesn’t believe all students are as careful with their choices as she was.

“A lot of people don’t actually read the candidate’s letters of intention. Most people vote for the names that they know and the people that they know personally,” Webster said.

Likewise, Bajwa feels as if some voters’ intentions were not as they should have been.

“I believe that some people really do take the voting process seriously but I also believe a lot of the student population doesn’t. Sometimes if people that aren’t involved in school and don’t take the process seriously have a friend running for presidency, they’ll vote for them as a joke without knowing what their intentions are. This whole process can mess up the entire system and elect somebody that may not have been the best and most qualified person to be elected,” Bajwa said.

In order to have a more strict look on who can and cannot run for presidency, students should be chosen by not only their involvement in the school, but the classes they take, their extracurricular activities, experience with leadership roles, and have a strong base of teacher recommendations for a leadership role.

Since voting is all online and most campaigns are on some sort of social media site, many students are either unable or unwilling to look at what each candidate has to offer, causing their votes to be less educated than they need to be in order to pick the best person for the Student Council roles.

“If the entire student body had to attend a mandatory assembly in which candidates had to stand up in front of everyone and read their platforms, it would be extremely beneficial for the voting process,” Webster said. In this way, students would be more aware of the hands they are placing not only their individual class but the entire student body in.”