Numbers Didn't Add Up

Tyler Barnes

When ASB members began counting the homecoming court ballots, it was discovered that the number of tallies did not coincide with the number of students counted for voting. Since the two lists did not add up, ASB officials decided that keeping the votes would be unfair and that having a new, more organized, homecoming court vote would be the right thing to do.
 
The first homecoming court vote occurred on the patio on September 30, 2014. ASB President Mia Mavromichalis, and a few other members of ASB, set up four tables, separated by grade, for homecoming nominations. “In the past, nominations have never really been a large turn out. It’s been very calm and casual,” Mavromichalis said. Understaffed, this years ASB members were not prepared for the large number of students to vote since prior homecoming voting events were not so popular.
 
“All the other grades were fine, there were no discrepancies with their nominations but with the senior class we had about over 170 nominations and that is something that is almost unheard of,” Mavromichalis said. When ASB members went back to count the ballots it was discovered that while 60-70 students were counted for voting, they had 160- 170 nominations. With the help of ASB advisor Carlos Valverde and then-Asst. Principal Lisa Cooper, an agreement was made to re-do the voting since it was not fair to keep the votes. “We both decided that in order to bring back the integrity of this election that we would have to revote,” Valverde said.
 
 
Days later, ASB held another voting booth. This time there were more ASB members to monitor the booth to make sure that the voting process went smoother and that the stuffing of ballots did not occur. With the new results, the following seniors were nominated for homecoming court: Athena Alderman, Isabel Daharo, Destiny Rivero, Desiree Mitchell, Kristabel Turcios, Kieran Althcus, Brendan Nwokekoro, Ian Mosqowite, Justin Stegall and Donavon Davis.