The James Logan Courier

Online voting to choose new Associated Student Body officers starts today
The electronic polls, located on the internet at www.eduballot.com/jlhs, open at 7 a.m. Tuesday and remain open until 8 p.m. ,Wednesday.

“Vote any time you want” between those times, said Cheryl Kuhlmann, Leadership advisor and administrator of the voting.

“You go onto the website, and login with your id number,” said Kuhlmann, “Your password is your last name. “

As a security measure, students must be prepared to complete the entire ballot when they log on. “Once you login, you must complete your voting because you can’t log in twice” as a security measure against voting more than once, she said.

Students can use any computer connected to the internet, so they can vote from home, too.

The company is charging Logan about $399 for a potential of 4,000 votes, cheaper than the old paper ballot method.

Kuhlmann said that the online voting method is a improvement over the older system, which had students voting in their third period classes.

One problem with the old method is that Leadership students had to stay out of class all day long to facilitate voting.

Twenty-two students are vying for 14 ASB positions. Logan students will decide the winners in an online election to be held April 4 and 5.

Only four of the 14 offices up for grabs are being contested; the rest have only one candidate running unopposed.

The top contested position is Vice President. Sophomor Nicole Soliman and Samantha Kang, a junior, are running against each other for that job.

Juniors Dragana Baras, Janet Wee, Karishma Prasad are all running to be Representative to the Board of Trustees.

For Commissioner of Clubs, the candidates are junior Erika Montes, junior Lily Chen, sophomore Michael Tirana and junior Collins McCulley.

Jennifer Huang, Carmen Shiu, a junior, and Wendy Ly, also a junior, all want to be Commissioner of Publicity.

Junior Catherine Start is unopposed in her bid for the top job of ASB President.

Jessica Jassar, a junior, has no opposition for the position of ASB Secretary.

Colin Malcolm, a junior, is unopposed for Treasurer.

For Commisioner of Activities, the only candidate is Michelle Santiago, a sophomore.

Junior Folami Harrison is the only candidate for Commissioner of Athletics.

Sophomore Susan Algarne is the only student running to be in charge of elections.

Junior Lisa Kong is the only one running to be Spirit Commissioner.

The only candidate for Commissioner of Public Relations is Kathleen Aguilar.

Ava Albano is the only one running to oversee School Improvement, and Andre Daly is unopposed in his bid to be Commissioner of Sales.

Also, the old method was also plagued with allegations of voting improprieties. Kuhlmann said that some teacher wouldn’t allow their students to vote, others forgot to give out the ballots and others forgot to turn them in, disenfranchising many students.

Plus, some students who didn’t care about the elections would bubble in anything on their ballots.

One of the advantages of the online system is that biographical information about the candidates is available as part of the process.

Under the new system, Kuhlmann is the only one who has access to administer the voting website.

Kuhlmann says that fewer votes are collected under the new system.“We’re not going to have as many students vote, but it’s only the kids who care who will vote.”