“One of the most contentious elections I’ve ever seen,” described a faculty member regarding the election for the freshman class officers. “The amount of campaigning done, and all the drama around it, has never been matched,” they said. With a crowded field of candidates, it was anyone's game to win--or to lose.
Though Abington Heights does not usually release the exact amount of votes each candidate received, we were able to obtain certain aspects of the election results. We received the total number of votes and the top two candidates' vote totals.
The vote for president goes as follows: Jack Farrell won the election with 153 votes (65.67%). Second place went to Reece Vida, who received 48 votes (20.6%).
The vote for vice-president goes as follows: Evan Davis narrowly won with 64 votes (27.47%). In a close second came Benjamin Colarassi with 51 votes (21.89%).
The race for historian included only two candidates, Cecelia O’Malley, a long-time member of the Abington community, and Anais Butovich, who recently moved here from Mid-Valley. Cecelia received 141 votes (61.04%) of the vote compared to Anais’s 90 votes (38.96%).
The race for treasurer was a nail-biter. The winner won by a mere single vote. Owen McVety won with 66 votes (28.33%), just one vote more than JT Healey, who received 65 votes (27.9%).
This leads us to the final race, the race for secretary. The winner, Gabby Bourcier, received 73 votes (31.6%), followed by Praneel Mallaiah with 67 votes (29% of the vote).
One key takeaway from the election was that three of the five winners won with under a third of the vote. Vice-President, Evan Davis, Treasurer Owen McVety, and Secretary Gabby Bourcier each received less than a third of the votes despite winning. This means each of these candidates will have to prove to voters who didn’t vote for them that they deserve majority support.
We asked them, “What is your message to people who didn’t vote for you on Thursday?” Gabby was quick and to the point, saying, “My message would be that they are entitled to their opinion, but I think that they will be very happy with what I can do for the school.”
Owen responded, saying, “Well, everyone worked really hard, me included.”
Finally, Evan said, “I mean--I’m not like going to disagree with them. They obviously saw something in me that they didn’t like--or in someone else that they liked more, which I respect. I respect everyone else, they were all great candidates, and I am not perfect, so if there is something you don’t like about me, that’s okay.”
When asked what the first thing you would do in your new position, Jack Farrell responded, “First off, I would like to listen to my fellow classmates’ ideas, wants, and needs to learn how I can serve them best. Plus, as stated in my speech, I would like to work towards getting microwaves in the cafeteria. I realize this will be a challenge, but I am up to the task.”
Owen had a fascinating response saying, “The first thing I want to do is to make the fundraising really good. Last year, the freshman class had horrible fundraising, and that caused them to be sort of stuck in a hole; they can't really do much. So I want to make sure we have enough money to do anything and everything we want.”
Finally, we asked each candidate how they reacted to the news that they won. Cecelia responded, “I was sitting with Ava and Shane, and we were overjoyed. It was a really sentimental moment.”
Owen replied, “I was pretty happy because I obviously worked pretty hard, and it was a goal that I set out to accomplish, and I did, so pretty happy.”
We asked all of the candidates what they thought of the other people they would be working with, and they all shared the opinion that they were great people. On behalf of the writers, we would like to concur with that sentiment along with congratulating all of the candidates for their hard work and fantastic campaigns. We wish the best of luck to our class officers and the class as a whole.