2020 has proved to be a very difficult year for many institutions, both in our everyday lives and at school. These include the Freshman ASB elections, which are held every year around September. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing has become mandatory for all AHS students, causing elections to be somewhat different this year.

Unlike traditional in-person methods, campaigns have been forced to be moved online. Jason Liu, a candidate for Freshman President, claimed that “campaigning online is drastically different compared to campaigning in person because you can’t physically collect signatures or make physical posters to hang on walls.” Because they cannot talk to or establish sincere bonds with their voters, many candidates are using social media to boost their campaigns.

However, most candidates believe that the online campaigning and elections are not for the better. Joss Lau said, “They are not ideal and it is harder to show our personalities as well as connect to different people.”

The freshmen have also agreed that students who were active on social media and built platforms prior to the elections have an advantage because of the situation. Those who don’t use or use very little social media would have a harder time to reach out to their voters. In addition to these issues, candidates have claimed that there are specific guidelines prohibiting them from “mass campaigning”, forcing them to resort to the tedious task of individually private messaging each student through social media.

Some candidates have said that not only is it going to be more difficult for them to convey their messages and campaigns, but also for voters to wisely review and differentiate between which candidates are actually genuine and which are not. Kelly Cheng stated, “Interaction would be more heartfelt, but while everything is electronically and socially distanced, sincerity is harder to detect from behind a screen.”

Even with all these difficulties, all of the candidates are still working extremely hard to let their fellow freshmen know about why they are suitable for their positions. Everyone has been doing great so far, and good luck in the upcoming elections!

Remember that voting will be open from Sept. 16 to Sept. 17, and the final election results will be released on Sept. 18.

Preliminary Election Results:
Freshman President: Jason Liu, Kelly Cheng
Freshman Vice President: Joyce Lee, Matthew Ho
Freshman Senator: David Kim, Patience Choi
Freshman Treasurer: Kaitlyn Kwan, Casey Kim
Freshman Secretary: Stella Luong, Ethan Li
Freshman Historian: Lucy Pang, Vansh Aggarwal
Freshman Public Relations: Shelby Chung, Rachel Saw

Graphic courtesy of Elena Chan