In historically uncontested election, vice-chair and secretary winners make news
Kate Orlanski to lead Agenda, Eitan Miro and Evy Rosenkranz will head newly empowered Fairness Committee
WINNER: A virtual poster for Kate Orlanski, newly elected Agenda chair, included her campaign motto — “Bottom up” — in Aramaic. The phrase itaruta dilatata refers to effort coming upward from the ground.
May 7, 2020
Sophomore Jack Sanders was elected vice chair of Agenda and sophomore Liad Machmali was elected SAC Vice Chair in this year’s Just Community Elections this afternoon.
In results released at 6 p.m — just an hour after voting closed — freshman Evan Beller defeated freshmen Eli Weiss and Noa Talasazan for secretary of the Student Activities Committee (SAC).
All of the positions for committee chair were uncontested. Kate Orlanski was voted Agenda Chair (uncontested), freshman Keira Beller won Agenda Secretary.
Juniors Eitan Miro and Evy Rosenkranz were voted Fairness Co-Chairs (uncontested), and sophomore Talya Kukurudz was elected Fairness Secretary (uncontested).
Juniors Shani Menna and Sophie Handleman were voted SAC Chair (uncontested).
The unprecedented online election — which followed an equally unprecedented online campaign — took place today between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Previous elections had been held online, but on computers set up in the gym at school.
This year, all campaigning and voting was conducted remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic and social isolation.
For the first time in Shalhevet history, this year’s elections were run by the Fairness Committee, in accordance with a Town Hall vote last year. Fairness then created a subcommittee for elections consisting of only the Fairness Co-chairs and adviser.
According to subcommittee member Evan Rubel, the team used Google Sheets API, which formatted data collected from Google forms that Just Community members voted on.
This consolidated some of the new power Fairness has been given this year, which also includes deciding consequences for schoolwide misbehavior like classroom vandalism.
Fairness’s first spring election went off without controversy or ambiguity. In another first, all races were decided using a ranked-choice voting system which assigns points to votes based on how many candidates are in a race. For example if three people ran in a race, a first place vote would be worth three points, a second place vote two points and a third place vote one point.)
Only two races had more than two candidates. In both cases, the winner won the most first-place votes as well as the most points overall.
For example, in one race, the winner had the most 1st-choice and the most 2nd-choice votes.
The Boiling Point was permitted to view the tallies, but only on the condition it would not share any information as to who came in second, third or lower.
From what a reporter could see, it appeared there were no complications.
That was a contrast from last year, when results of the Fairness Co-Chair race had to be resolved — ironically — in a Fairness case, due to confusion in how the ranked-choice system had functioned. Last year’s vote used a different computer program.
Staff Writer Benjamin Gamson contributed to this story.
