(From left) Ms. Frances Walton, Ms. Karen Sulzinsky, and Mr. Douglas Silver.
After a rousing debate given by this year's Board of Education candidates at the Ridgefield High School Candidates Assembly, there was much speculation by students about how the actual election would pan out.
It’s a majority opinion that the assembly was exciting and full of twists and turns; the headline chosen by the Ridgefield Press, “Students Drill Candidates in Assembly,” summarizes the event nicely. The candidates in attendance were Mr. Keidel (R), Mr. Murray (R), Ms. O’Connor (R), Mr. Silver (D), Ms. Sulzinsky (D), and Ms. Walton (D). Mr. Cordisco (R), who was scheduled to attend the assembly, could not make it.
The issues discussed ranged from the under-funded arts programs in Ridgefield Public Schools to minority rights and included a lot in between! The topics certainly kept students interested. 224 students voted the following day in the Mock Election. In descending order from most to least votes received, the candidates favored by RHS students were Douglas Silver (205 votes), Karen Sulzinsky (177 votes), James Keidel (157 votes), Frances Walton (156 votes), Christopher Murray (78 votes), Sharon D’Orso (77 votes), David Cordisco (73 votes), and Tracey O’Connor (46 votes). Despite a clear trend among student voters, the adult voting population of Ridgefield did not seem to agree: “Vote totals in the school contest were: Sulzinsky, 3,065; O’ Connor, 3,058; Murray, 3,028; Walton, 3,006; Keidel, 2,779; Cordisco, 2,765” (The Ridgefield Press). Conversely, the results of the official vote reflected a favor for O’Connor and Murray, who [according to students] didn’t do as well as say Keidel in the RHS Assembly.
However, there may have been some faulty counting in this year’s election. Since Keidel only edged Cordisco out by a margin of 14 points, a recount is in order. Perhaps other results will end up changing too. Regardless, it’s clear that the parent and student voters have largely different values and opinions, which is reflected in who the age groups voted for, respectively.
The clear divide among parent and student voters in Ridgefield raises a few questions in my mind:
- Could it be that some of the adult voters in Ridgefield are misinformed about candidates’ stances on the issues?
- Do you think that we should implement a system that allows BOE Candidate Debates to be public [not just for high school students]?
- Do you think that the results seen in this election are a product of misinformation, or a generational divide?
Speaking on behalf of Ms. Fox, I encourage you all to comment respectfully to your classmates in your responses. After all, this is a post talking about issues in our own community; it would not be wise to offend anyone, candidates or otherwise.
Source: http://www.theridgefieldpress.com/49195/democrats-nominate-slate-with-some-new-some-familiar-faces/
Source (Credit to Ms. Fox): http://www.theridgefieldpress.com/53155/race-for-selectman-too-close-to-call/
6 comments:
Caroline 8 said...
After the once potential Board of Education candidates presented in the Mock Election Assembly, the majority of the senior class had a clear vision of each candidate's views and hopes for the education system in Ridgefield. As Rachel expressed before, the assembly expanded over several topics including diversity and improvements in the way students are taught. Most candidates acknowledged that they wanted the education here to be a valuable, cultured, and well approached system through all grade levels, beginning in kindergarten and hopefully becoming a lifelong educational experience that benefits all students future. The students most certainly were able to obtain such information from this assembly and I don't think that the adults are misinformed about candidates stances on issues I think it ultimately comes down to the gap of differing values of age groups. It is evident that the outcome of student election and the actual election, reflects greatly in the differing values of the students and adults. The adults for example may value the candidate who initiates funding for better programs in our schools whereas the students may seek after the candidate who promises to implement air conditioning systems in all classrooms. As a result I do not believe the majority of adult voters are misinformed, but rather they hold different values than the students, when voting for candidates. I think my stance on this question also answers the third question which asks “is there a generational divide?”. I certainly believe that this is the case as I expressed before. I don't believe it is misinformation but more a gap between the values that the older generation and the younger generation hold. In regards to the third question, I believe it would be realistic to implement a system that allows the BOE Candidate Debates to be public. In a small town like Ridgefield, most information in regards to the election is gathered through the newspaper and word of mouth, and I believe it would be held valuable if the public could take in the views of each candidate in a public assembly. This could allow for the public to become well informed and exposed to each candidate's views, as well as their personalities. To end, the board of education election inevitably reflects the views of the older generation alone (or at least those 18 and older, who are usually not students in the system). As a result, I do not believe the results of the election should come as a surprise but rather an expectation. I dont think it is realistic to argue that the election was a surprise when the voters are not representative of our age group.
I agree that the parents can be misinformed about the candidates because there is no public debate where they can see for themselves the ideals of the different candidates and what each one can bring to the table for their kids. In addition, in the debate at RHS we heard each candidate speak on their positions on certain subject and issues that need to be addressed in our school system. However, without the parents hearing these opinions coming directly from the candidates themselves, they are unable to determine whether the information their children report back to them on or the things that they hear in the newspaper accurately describe the candidate. I also agree that we should absolutely hold a public BOE debate in Ridgefield. It is almost meaningless to have a debate that is only viewed by the students because the majority of the students won't even be able to vote in the BOE election. Instead they should have one single public BOE debate that the students can be required to attend by their teacher or not but as long as the voters can meet the candidates, it will be essential to an accurate election. Lastly, I believe that the results seen in the election are more a product of misinformation rather than division because although different people look for different change to be made in our school system based on the results of the voting. It is hard to believe that some of the candidates that had such poor voting totals at the high school could obtain such high voting totals in the town. Although the mock election isn't 100% accurate, it is usually pretty close and so I feel that the votes that may seem questionable were more a result of a lack of information about that candidate. In conclusion, the age groups does have an effect on the voting results but a bigger factor is the lack of information leading to misinformation about the candidates.
I agree with Caroline 8 that the dichotomy between the student election and the actual election is somewhat due to the generational divide. Also, I think that rather than being misinformed, parents and students received slightly different information about the candidates. For example, Tracey O'Connor was noticeably unpopular with the students because of how she presented herself in person during the debate at RHS. However, she garnered the second highest amount of votes. Obviously, the students did not predict the outcome as accurately as in previous years. I think this is because many of the people voting got their information primarily from written sources (online or otherwise). So, students and voters learned about candidates in very different ways and had very different perceptions. Like Ms. Fox said, very few people actually voted in the BOE election, which invariably skews the results. To answer another of Hannah's questions, I undoubtedly believe that we should have an open forum type debate for the entire town. However, the issue with that is definitely attendance and accessibility for the actual voters.
Of course, students will definitely have different values than the people who go to the polls on Election Day, especially in an election that so closely concerns our day-to-day lives. I felt, personally, that the biggest issue with the candidates was that they didn't know what we, as students, actually wanted and needed and were instead just saying what they assumed we wanted to hear. The same would never be felt by parents and other voters, as they're not as directly influenced by BOE decisions. What parents know about our frustration is exclusively up to how well we can articulate ourselves. So, rather than purely misinformation or a generational gap, I believe that the difference between the mock and real elections is multifaceted.
Sarah, I agree that a generational gap has a lot to do with the disparity in voting between students and parents / other adults. We simply are not given the same information about the candidates. Students were shown a whole debate where candidates talked about issues that mattered to them while adults are not given much at all outside of small print sources. I think that lawn posters and familiar names may have had more to do with the way many voted rather than real information. While I agree with Sarah that different values may have had a little to do with it, I think that apathy and laziness probably had more to do with it. Because of this, I think that it would make a lot of sense for student votes to contribute to the BOE election. After all, even though most are not of voting age, they have a greater stake in the outcome of the election, and they are much more knowledgeable on the issues.
Even within the school, I think that opinions are very prone to influence. Many were quick to support Silver over other candidates even though I thought they made a strong showing. While Silver did well, I did not think that he was far and away the best candidate. I think other candidates like Keidal also were very strong and got misrepresented. However, from what I saw a sort of bandwagon swayed the vote. I think that the vote may have turned out differently if students voted right away.
I think there are multiple reasons that caused the disparity between the student votes and the actual election. First and foremost I would answer yes the the first question Hannah posed. I think that many of the adult voters were not clear on the issues that many of the candidates held. The students had the ability to hear first hand the each person's view on the issues that were most pressing to them. Many of the adults who were voting never had this opportunity. Therefore, they voted based on party affiliations and things they have heard which might not be entirely true. This brings me to the second aspect of why I believe there was a difference in the turn out of the two elections. I believe that many people that voted just voted based on the party, as we learned about in the textbook. While kids voted based on the things they had heard during the assembly, adults may have just voted based on party affiliation if they had not heard about the candidates' policies. Party affiliations also correlates to youth. There are a higher number of democrats in younger populations and a higher number of republicans in older generations. This age difference could also contribute the the difference in the poll results. It will be interesting to see how the policies of the candidates that they stated will play out in the coming years.
Post a Comment