HOW TO WIN A HIGH SCHOOL ELECTION





HOW TO WIN A HIGH SCHOOL ELECTION
ISBN # 0-9667824-0-2
COPYRIGHT 1999 BY JEFF MARX

 All quotes contained herein are copyright protected by their respective authors and are included here pursuant to express permission from each author. No part of this book may be quoted or reproduced in any fashion whatsoever, in any medium, without advance written permission from the publisher. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. www.schoolelection.com





Getting Your Name Remembered
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POSTERS

HANDOUTS

POSTERS
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Nobody ever votes for a name they don't recognize. Posters should remind everyone that you're running.



The most important thing is to get your name out there. The truth is, after being bombarded with an hour of campaign speeches littered with empty promises, most students cannot even remember who is running or who said what. When they finally get the ballots, they mark the name they recognize. So you must emphasize your name. They won't vote for you if they can't remember your name.

Jason Miller
Voter
Clovis, California


The biggest thing in an election was the exposure the student received. Normally, I didn't know most of the students on the ballot and I would just pick the ones I remembered or someone said to vote for. Popularity isn't a big deal, it's more like how well the person is known.

Michela Mary Sanders
Voter
Evansville, Indiana


It is not all words and charm, it is the way the people remember you.

Victoria Johnson
Voter
Ft. Walton Beach, Florida


I've never known one person who was influenced by a flashy poster.

Nicholas H. Grainger
Voter
Richmond, Virginia


I only voted for people who put up posters, which meant that some of my best friends, I did not vote for. If someone can't even take the time to make a couple of posters, then they probably aren't going to take much time with normal activities such as homecoming.

Katie Sup
Member of Senior Senate
Omaha, Nebraska



Post interesting things in clever places.



Posters are only as valuable as their location.

Robert O'Brien
Senior Council Senator
Portland, Maine


Do not place the fliers or whatever every five feet, try and get people you know and who are friends to put your fliers up on their lockers. The rest should be in places where people stop walking and do look around. (Often you see the posters in places where you never see them if you walk normally.)

Ben Vandaley
Voter
Rapid City, South Dakota


It gets really boring to drive by all the red, white and blue signs that say, basically, "vote for me." You do not see Nike advertising with boring colors. The reason they are so successful is because of their good marketing. Come on, get creative!

AJ Renchin
Secretary, National Honor Society
Lakeville, Minnesota


Don't post papers everywhere that only say VOTE FOR ME, instead put a quality on it that would suggest why you feel it should be you (and put a different quality on each one).

Jason Johns
Voter
Stockton, California


When you make signs to put up all over the school, put up some reminder of your platform. The group that won had their platform on the walls, while the rest just had little rhyming posters (i.e., "vote so and so, we'll put on a show," things like that).

George Schneider
Voter
New York, New York



Get your poster noticed from among the sea of posters.



The best idea you can have for your poster is: ATTENTION GRABBING! Just make sure you draw them in first...then worry about saying something (if anything other than your name and office you are running for). Don't make it tasteless or REALLY UGLY... but make it jump out at them... sometimes something as simple as using COLORS rather than black and white on the poster can mean getting someone's attention and NOT GETTING IT!

Jon Perillo
Voter
Casey, Ilinois


Chances are, your school will be covered with other people's posters too, so be creative when displaying yours! Try hanging them sideways, upside down, and at imperfect angles. Maybe get some heavy duty duct tape and tape your message to the hallway floor (people will always look down). Hang them above water fountains, in bathroom stalls, and in lunch lines, places where people will look.

Micki Wrangler
Voter
Buffalo, New York


The most effective posters are ones that exhibit some sense of humor. A play on words, especially with the candidate's name, no matter how far stretched or lame, does help a voter remember a name. Also, it is a good idea to omit illustrations which often end up being too cutesy or unrelated and fancy type faces which are hard to read.

Emily Carroll & Alex Ejsmont
School President and Vice President
Toronto, Ontario



Miscellaneous.



People will always go for a familiar name rather than an unknown one, even if they have never met the person -- so have flyers, buttons, and even pens made with your name streaked across them, to make your name familiar.

Danny Quiroz
Voter
McAllen, Texas


But don't be annoying! This girl in my high school made over 500 posters. They were everywhere. (I went to a small private school, only 250 students, one hallway long). She ran two years in a row and never won.

Kelly A. Adams
Voter
Bucks County, Pennsylvania


Don't spend tons of money for this position. In the eighth grade, a girl wanted to be Class President so her mom gave her three hundred dollars for the campaign. She bought pencils, magnets, buttons, ribbons, and made tons of fliers for this election, and the amount of crap that was then in the halls afterwards... People went out to vote against her so that she wouldn't get elected because they were sick of it all.

Ben Vandaley
Voter
Rapid City, South Dakota


One of the guys who was running for President made tons of buttons that said "Vote for Hunter." He had scanned famous scenes from movies into his computer, like where Forrest Gump meets the President, or a scene from the Wizard of Oz, and superimposed his picture into the scene. He made hundreds of these buttons, and distributed them to the entire student body. As it grew nearer to election day, he would show up in the outfits he was wearing in the button pictures, like a flag print top hat, a blazer, and flag print boxer shorts. Everyone in the school was talking about what he was wearing, and it was great publicity for him. I think he was able to show the student body that he was dedicated to being their President by his willingness to make a complete fool of himself. It worked, though, because he won the election.

Lindsey Wortham
Club Vice President
Austin, Texas


Don't use paint to make your posters if there is a chance of rain. Big mistake.

Daniel Colton
Student Body President
Scottsdale, Arizona


IDEAS FOR POSTERS



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HANDOUTS
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What can you hand out?



Make up a survey and put in the teachers' boxes and ask the teachers to pass them out and collect them. Then announce the results and do what the students want.

Robert Craft
Voter
Jacksonville, Florida


The cutest speech was all designed around candy that would be tossed into the crowd by two very cute guys. She told of how she wouldn't get BUTTERFINGERS in office or wouldn't SNICKER at anyone's ideas, she had WHOPPERS of ideas, and things along those lines.

Jaclyn Houghton
Executive Board Treasurer
Urbandale, Iowa


A kid gave his speech and said "and anyone who doesn't want to vote for me or isn't convinced they should... Suck on this..." and he tossed out suckers to the crowd...

Teresa M. Robinson
Student Council Vice-President
Bethany, West Virginia


Write "Stick with (name)" on little slips and tape them on Pixie Sticks to pass out.

Rachel Spear
French Club President
Bay St. Louis, Missouri


One of my best friends ran for Class President every year. Last year, she passed out "Vote for Kasee" gum! It was really creative and cute! She made her own labels and basically just taped them on. It wasn't anything fancy, but the student body liked it!

Emily Bildstein
Student Representative
Marion, Iowa


Some "bribes" I have seen are personalized pencils that say "Sally Field for Vice-President." They are very eye-catching. I also have found that stickers and buttons work well too, because it shows that the person is advertising him/herself aggressively and really wants to win.

Navneet Sandhu
Voter
Clifton, Virginia


It seemed the people who handed out things such as pencils, notepads, etc. would have an edge because you look at that stuff time and time again, whereas stuff like candy, you just eat.

Alecia Frisby
Class President
Ellicott City, Maryland


What worked for campaigns in elementary was giving out stuff. I passed out pencils with a piece of paper that had my name on it attached. I didn't pass out candy because the teachers didn't like it, and if the kids got candy from one of the candidates, they thought they were really cool but changed their minds after the teacher took the candy away or the kid got in trouble. Another good thing about the pencils is that if they use them, not only do they see your name all day long, but so do the people around them.

Alison Comstock
Voter
Houston, Texas



Bribery



I have one word for you: CANDY! Candy was always the thing that swayed my vote. If the dork gives me the candy and the cool kid gives me some lame slogan, I would vote for that dork in a heartbeat. I do know a girl who had many friends and she was up against a nobody and she lost because he gave out the candy. The candy that wins the most votes is the Charms blow pop, pass a few of those bad boys around with a sticker that has your name on it and you are a shoo-in!

Elizabeth Hayward Wagner
Voter
Grosse Pointe South, Michigan


Bribery -- unfortunately, it works. A Jolly Rancher will go farther than a button in most high schools. People want something for nothing -- they see elections as another opportunity to get something. But be smart -- if most people resort to bribery, candy is the easiest medium. Since most people will be using candy -- what is going to make you stand out? What I have found effective was wrapping the Jolly Rancher with a piece of paper taped around it. To get to the bribe (the candy), they have to get though the paper. Man by nature is curious. It is safe to say that most people will open it up and find out what the piece of paper says. On the Jolly Ranchers I have used, my paper has had some cartoons on them -- cartoons using slogans to help me. Sure, this will take some time -- but so will the office which you want to occupy. It's a good project to ask your friends to help you with.

Satyen Saraswat
Mu Alpha Theta State President
Murfreesboro, Tennessee


My Senior year, I ran for Vice-President of my choir class, and to get people's votes, my friend Philip (who was running for President) and I passed out suckers!!!!! Well we WON!!!!!!! People will vote for anyone who is giving them something!! It makes you kind of sad...

Heather Vorhoff
Vice-President of Concert Choir
Garden City, Michigan


I passed out pencils (#2 of course) and put labels on them that said "Mark your ballot for Mary Beth." Unfortunately, the student body found Andes Mints more appealing than pencils...

Mary Beth Harrison
President, National Honor Society
Hull, Georgia



Giving stuff away doesn't guarantee votes.



Don't waste your time with candy or any bribing tools, because it doesn't work. I ran against a girl who bribed everyone, and they ate her candy and voted me in.

Christopher J. Collins
Student Council President
Corpus Christi, Texas


Trying to bribe people for votes doesn't work. Like bringing the whole school chocolate chip cookies -- people will only use you for a short while then pretend they don't know you come election time.

Tina M. Yauger
Voter
Fairfield, Ohio


My slogan for the regular election was "Don't Be a Dum-Dum, Vote Jennifer for Student Council President" and I put Dum-Dum lollipops on all of the tables in the lunch room with a little tag attached with the slogan, reminding them to go down and vote. I also stood right outside the voting poll and handed out my Dum-Dums and reminded them to vote for the best candidate, me!... For the run-off election, my slogan was "Jennifer Always Keeps her Promises..." and I handed out Dove's Promises candies at lunch again and put some at each lunchroom table. Although I did not win the election...

Jennifer Bailey
Vice President of Florida Association of Student Councils
Fort Meade, Florida



Beware: attempting to bribe voters can backfire.



Something that a girl did in her A.S.B. campaign that I thought caused her to lose the election was pass out suckers at lunchtime. I thought it was terrible campaigning. Before she did that, I was planning to vote for her, but after she did it, I changed my mind and a lot of people I know did too.

Jennifer L. Stair
Voter
Kennewick, Washington


A girl who was running for Class President gave away Smarties. All of the people she gave them to ended up dropping them on the floor and grinding them into the carpet. She didn't win, and she had to clean up the mess. It's actually sort of a sad story...

Kristina Moran
Voter
Kilgore, Texas


Make sure to find out your school's rules on giving out candy and such before you necessarily do it, because you might get yourself disqualified.

Jeremy Gorelick
Club President
Greenlawn, New York


Dropping a little money never hurt, but it can work two ways. When I ran for Student Body President last year, I went all out. I'm talking pens, bumper stickers, banners, the works. Getting my name around worked pretty well, and I came within 25 votes of upsetting a rather popular incumbent. As the campaign wore on, though, I became aware of a "money backlash." This is a situation unique to the high school election where people get sick of seeing your name all over the place and vote for the other guy just because he is less exposed.

Kyle Rossi
Class Treasurer
Solon, Ohio

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(c) 1999 Jeff Marx Books