Campaigning for senior polls ruins the fun and point of the poll
The texts came flooding in when they got the email. “Senior polls are out! Vote for me for best dressed! Vote for me for best all around!” Now, collages are going up on Facebook and announcements are being made in classes. People really care about this. Why? It’s honestly not a big deal. It’s your senior year. Next year it won’t matter, the year after that it won’t matter and in 20 years whether or not you won a senior superlative will continue to not matter.So, could someone please explain to me why people are frantically “running” for polls? An opinion poll is defined by the U.S. Oxford English Dictionary as “an assessment of public opinion obtained by questioning a representative sample.” A poll is not an election. On the contrary, an election is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a formal and organized choice by vote of a person for a political office or other position.” A senior superlative is not a position, nor is it a political office. A senior superlative is an award. A light hearted award might I add.The senior polls are opinion polls. They measure the senior class’ opinion of whether or not “Joe Student” or “Joe Student A” has the best hair. They do not measure whether “Joe Student” or “Joe Student A” is qualified to hold the position of best hair.Friends of mine have said to me “if you don’t campaign, you don’t get on the ballot.” This statement makes no sense because there is no ballot. A poll, by nature, does not have a ballot. It only has questions that people answer.Also, by campaigning, the validity and honesty of the polls completely disintegrate. People are voting because they know that “Joe Student” really wants to win, not because he or she actually has the best hair. Since many students are treating this as an election, if I look at it from an election point of view the election would come down to: “Who wants to win more? Obama or Romney?” That’s a good question to ask yourself. Now, because this topic is not nearly as important as a presidential election, it is okay that people are campaigning. It isn’t going to seriously hurt anyone or create problems on a national, or even a school-wide, level. However, it is incredibly irritating and uncalled for.The absolute worst “Vote for me!” is the “Vote for me for best all around.” Right there, you have just explained exactly why you are not the best all around. If someone is the best all around, he or she will win. He or she should not, but probably will, win because people were being nice. Senior polls have nothing to do with being nice! Senior polls are supposed to be an accurate measure of what the senior class thinks. Now, with all this campaigning, winning a senior poll means almost nothing. It can essentially equate to, “enough people liked me enough to vote for me because I asked them to.” Is this really what you were “running” for? There is no satisfaction, no gratification.Eloise GrahamEditor-in-Chief