After months of campaigning, the day was finally here when voters would hear directly from the candidates they had seen on posters all over the walls of CHS. Each year, the Forum Council (FoCo) holds elections for the upcoming year’s leadership, with a town hall just before the election. This year, those facts were the same, but that’s where the similarities of this election ended.
What makes this year different is not only the format change and the timeline, but also, most notably to FoCo advisor Ryan Silvester, the buy-in from candidates. In previous years, there have been two races: one for groups of two co-presidents and one for solo vice-presidential candidates, but after a vote by the FoCo body, members elected to change to only one co-presidential race. As a result, there are more candidates for the one race, and increases competition. Besides the format change, due to the busy past few weeks of forum activities, the election and town hall have been pushed back significantly.
On Tuesday, March 10, at the town hall in the Craft Theater at CHS, candidates answered several questions prepared by FoCo before answering questions from the crowd. With the high competition and long campaigning period, candidates have had an extended and intensified buildup to the event.
Current FoCo Vice President and CHS Senior, Ava Griffith, led the event, asking candidates questions, moderating audience questions and managing time limits for the teams. Griffith found that with the high level of competition, each team did great, but both she and Silvester noticed that while last year differences were more apparent between candidates, it was harder to observe those this year because of how prepared each group was.
“It was really hard for a group to stand out at Town Hall,” Griffith said. “I have an idea of who I want to vote for, but I don’t think there’s one person that a lot of people are going to cater to or vote for than the other.”
Both Silvester and Griffith believe that it’s going to be a very tight race, and for them, that high level of competition is great to ensure the candidates are working hard for their students. Voting will take place during Thursday’s forum time, and the winning candidates will be announced at 2:30 during the FoCo meeting
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