Mini-elections are not popularity contests
In Ava's going for school vice president cuz i have nothing to lose, she mentions that on her friends told her:
the election is based on popularity anyways.
Which is the same thing I was told at the start of 2025 when I said i'd run for the student representative council at my school (I think this is a thing synonymous across australian schools). And at the start of the year I wasn't friends or even friendly with most people.
And then I got in
There were 3 contestants running for our class at that time, and only 2 people would get to represent the class. the other 2 contestants were my best friend and this one kid who played a lot of sport and made jokes all the time, and me and my friend won.
to be popular is to be
liked or admired by many people or by a particular person or group.
And we certainly were not, we had like 6 friends in the entire class for 17 at the time. and it wasnt that were were liked more than the other person. I think its that everyone thought "Yeah these guys won't give a bad impression of us to leaders".
which is a judgement not based in popularity but in the communal belief that they wont inconvenience me if they are elected.
And now you may ask what I did in the SRC? well, we are meant to have a meeting every 2 weeks. unfourtunately we had 4 over the course of the year. in those 4 I:
Secured funding for to install picnic tables in the main courtyard of the middle school which as of next year i wont even be allowed in (they are yet to be installed but I was told to chop that down to the speed of beuocracy
written and filmed a short film against bullying.... No one who volunteered to edit it ever did so i guess the lead scriptwriter will take on the job of lead editor too.
Micromanage several fundraising events throughout the year.
The SRC is meant to help with a lot more things like all the sausage sizzles and fundraisings and organising events. However that is not done on the level of the council and rather on the level of the teacher in charge of it knows a student on the council(which isnt a suprise, its a small school everyone knows everyone) and gets them to help.
In conclusion mini-elections, in the context of school are not popularity contests. but just know there is no way the education department is going to let 15 year olds change important things like picnic tables.
Until you go and do it anyway.