A recent change in ASB’s election system is the introduction of voting by the Election Convention along with filming speeches rather than having them delivered in person to the student body. This year, prospective ASB candidates were asked to write and deliver speeches recorded during office hours and presented in advisement in a subsequent week.

However, there are considerable drawbacks to the new system of recording speeches including candidates not having enough time for their speeches and students only giving partial attention to the speeches during class. Candidates should therefore deliver their speeches in person similar to last year in order to maximize the effectiveness of the speech.

“When we watched the speeches in advisement, I noticed that many students did not pay attention to the filmed speeches,” sophomore and advisement delegate Jaineel Makwana said. “Instead of listening to the speeches given by the candidates, students were either on their phones, listening to music or working on other school work.”

By sitting in a classroom and not facing the actual candidates, students did not feel the need to pay their undivided attention to the speaker. However, if students were watching the speech live, they would feel more connected to the candidates.

During live speeches, students would be face to face with the candidates, causing them to be more empathetic toward the speaker and attentive during the speech.

“I felt that the candidates did not have enough time to express their plans if they were to be elected into office,” sophomore and advisement delegate Matthew Ahn said. “Since we had to fit all the speeches into a short advisement period, this limited the amount of detail that the candidates could put into their speeches.”

ASB argues that the advisement delegates will still be able to get an in-person experience at the election convention after the top two candidates are chosen. Although the top two candidates can give their speeches live to the delegates, these candidates may be entirely different if the student body were able to see longer in-person speeches. If the students were to see the speeches live the result of the popular election may be entirely different.

“I wish that the candidates had more time to give speeches,” freshman and advisement delegate Noah Kim said. “The shortened amount of time made it very hard to decide which candidate to vote for.”

ASB’s decision to record speeches did not engage the student population when watching the speeches in advisement and did not give students enough time to make a well-informed decision on the candidate they would like to vote for. In the future, there should be more time allocated for speeches so candidates can fully express their plans if they were elected into office. In the future it would be better to dedicate time in the school day for an assembly where the candidates could deliver their speeches.