Southpinellas: School elections can have their own dramatic finishes

School elections can have their own dramatic finishes

By NATALIE BAUGHMAN

ST. PETERSBURG -- Just like the U.S. presidential race, elections at two area high schools have been close calls this year.

On Friday, Texas Gov. George W. Bush was leading Vice President Al Gore by just a few hundred votes, a tiny percentage of Florida's 6-million voters.

Last spring, the senior class president of St. Petersburg High School won by fewer than 10 votes.

In the fall, the homecoming court at Boca Ciega High School featured 13 couples instead of 10 because of a three-way tie for 10th place.

But there's a striking difference between the high school contests and the presidential election, said Linda Benware, principal of St. Petersburg High. In high school, there are no recounts. Absent students don't get to vote, and there are rarely challenges to the results, no matter how close the tallies are.

"We run a tight, simple election process," Mrs. Benware said. "It's not tough to manage because we're dealing with just 2,200 students."

Students nominate themselves for both the Student Council and homecoming races, Mrs. Benware said. They fill out an application in which teachers and the assistant principal must verify that they have at least a 2.0 GPA and no disciplinary problems.

Their peers vote in English class. They circle the name of the person of their choice, then submit their ballot to the teacher. The teacher delivers the class' ballots to the Student Government Association supervisor.

Ballots are kept inside a vault for two years in case questions arise about the totals, Mrs. Benware said. Although she has worked at the school only for a year, she said she hasn't heard about a time when votes had to be recounted or an election had to be held over again."

"Every step of the process is controlled by an administrator to make sure ballots aren't counted incorrectly," she said. "We take this very seriously."

Boca Ciega High School handles its elections in a similar way, said Principal Barbara Paonessa. The competition for homecoming king and queen is usually closer than the race for Student Council offices, she said. While the homecoming decision has come down to just a couple of votes, Student Council races can be separated by several hundred.

"That really puts things in perspective when a school election can be separated by as many votes as the presidential election," she said.

Both principals said the discrepancies in the presidential race have taught them the importance of monitoring their own elections strictly.

"These are just high school kids we're dealing with," Mrs. Paonessa said. "But we must teach them now that voting is important and that their votes can make a difference."