Survival Of The Fittest

For the elections, the entire senior class had been herded into the auditorium. Everything was set up. Ballots were handed out at the door. As the seniors got settled, lights and microphones were tested. Then, after a brief pause, the candidates were called to give their speeches. The vice presidential candidates were called first, then the presidential candidates. In each case, the speeches were given in alphabetical order by the candidate's last name.

---

First up was Amaranta Montalvo:

Mara approached the podium smoothly. She was outfitted in a straight black mini skirt, and a closed red blazer jacket. Her hair was pulled back into an impeccable pony tail with her black hair hanging neatly. She spread her hands over the surface and smiled pleasantly.

"Good morning, students of Aurora High," she said in a lovely sing song voice.

"I am here before you today to present myself as a candidate for the vice presidency of our class. I realize you have choices when deciding on the leadership of the senior class, as you should, so the burden has fallen to me to convince you that I am the most capable choice."

She shuffled the cards in front of her, though she wasn't reading off of them. Mara tilted her head and continued to smile, her hair swaying slightly behind her.

"I've been with the student council for all of my years here at Aurora. I already have intimate knowledge of the workings of student government. The time that a new comer might spend trying to learn the intricacies of the system would be better put to use by me working to improve the experience of the students here.

"I'm a skilled fund raiser. As some of you may know, I'm very determined and I put that tenacity into the work I do with the council. If I'm chosen as vice president I promise to assist the president in coming up with better fund raisers to make sure our student events and prom are the very best in Seattle.

"I know what it means to be a student with extracurricular activities. As someone who is in both the debate team and the newspaper I know personally how difficult it can be setting up events for your club. I empathize. I want to help. Let me be that helping hand for you.

"Elect me as student body vice president," she finished beaming.

---

Next came Miles Strickland:

"Students and faculty of Aurora High - What's up!

"I'm sure you don't want to just watch me stand here and talk all day, so I'm going to keep this short.

"Okay, okay, maybe some of you do like looking at me! But that's beside the point.

"The point is this is not about me, students of Aurora High.

"It's about you. Aurora High is your school.

"I'm sure you'd rather have someone who you can relate to, someone who understands you, someone who cares about you and someone you can trust, to help run and organize school events like prom, in the way you want it, than one who doesn't.

"You want a winner; someone with leadership to push it all along.

"Well, I can be that someone. That someone who will represent your voice. The voice of the voiceless.

"After all, I'm a big fan of democracy.

"In fact I'm making it a corner stone for my student council campaign. Feel free to tell me any of your ideas and I will do my best to make it happen.

"I believe in democracy and I believe in you Aurora High.

"Remember: Make your school Miles better! Vote Miles Strickland for Vice President.

"And see you at the victory party - cover charge one vote for Miles."

*wink*

"Go Pelicans!"

---

Naomi Bell was the first of the presidential candidates to speak:

"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a U.S poet, once wrote 'Build today, then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall tomorrow find its place.' All change needs a secure base for it to happen, and I am here today to tell you why you should make me that base. For those who don't me, I'm Naomi Bell and I'm running for student council president of 2012.

"Now, I know some of you are thinking 'why change anything? Aurora doesn't need any changes.' In ninety-nine percent of ways, I would agree with you. Because Aurora is an excellent school with excellent people. I can't speak for most of you, but I chose to be here and I have never regretted the decision. I have no plans to declare that Aurora can only be helped by gasoline and matches.

"But despite that... despite the ninety-nine percent, there is still that one percent. And let's be honest... you all have your own ideas on what that erroneous one percent is. The occasional piece of broken sports equipment, maybe. Or textbooks that have aged beyond accuracy. It could be the fact that sometimes the cafeteria food isn't quite edible, or that portions of the school are just dreary to look at.

"Some of these problems will always be here. It can't be helped. Equipment breaks down, textbooks fall out of date and terrible cafeteria food is something older than time itself. But still, some of these things can be changed, and if we don't attempt to change what we can the problems will just pile up until this school collapses under a stack of broken toilets and textbooks that insist that J.F. Kennedy is still president.

"So, that begs the question. Why vote for me? What makes me think that I can change things? That's simple. Because I tore the section out of both my dictionary and thesaurus that has the word 'quit' on it, shredded it up and fed it to the dog that lives next door. I'm persistent and dedicated to everything I do, and I've proven that at my time here at Aurora High.

"I've been part of the student council for the last three years, and the same goes for the debate team. This year I've also been working on the yearbook, and besides all that I've still managed to maintain high grades in all my classes. The reason for that is because I give one hundred and ten percent towards everything I do, big or small.

"If this school really needs something, then I will do my best to persist, even if it means spending hours arguing with the teachers or Principal Freeman in order to convince them that the council is up for the job. Same goes for raising the money. When we do the fundraisers needed to afford whatever activities are required to improve this school, I will be standing there, selling raffle tickets or baked goods, all day. All night, if that's what it takes. Even if it gets to the point where it's five in the morning and I'm running on sheer force of will and twelve cups of coffee, I will still be there selling those raffle tickets.

"Furthermore, my previous experience just being on the student council has let me learn from the previous presidents. I've seen what they've done right and what they've done wrong, and so I know the sort of work that goes into this job. I know enough to be able to emulate their successes and avoid their failures.

"As to my actual plans? Well, for starters... the organizing of more school events. While the prom is fabulous it doesn't have to be the only event out there. More dances. Perhaps a talent show, because this is Seattle, I know we have some brilliant musicians out there and they should get to show it. And if we run a talent show, the proceeds can go towards improving the school even more, so what's not to like?

"I also suggest that we paint some murals throughout the school. Because, let's be honest... the student center is dreary and we have to see it every day when we go to get our books from our lockers. Once again, we have some fantastic artists out there so why aren't we using them to make this place a lot brighter? Even if we aren't allowed to paint the lockers, some paintings in there would make all the difference.

"But my plans are flexible, because should I be elected student council president... I'll be working for you, not just on what I, personally, think we should have. Maybe I'm completely off-base about all of this. Maybe you all like the student center how it is. But I can only listen to your ideas if you tell me what you want, and I can only do my very best to help if you elect me as your president.

"This school needs a strong base today, so that it can work towards better things tomorrow. So vote for someone who has the persistence, consideration and caffeine supply to give what this school needs. To make this school even better than it already is. When you put in your ballots, ring in a new year of student government by voting for Naomi Bell."

---

Finally, Zubin Wadia delivered the last speech of the assembly:

"In my time at Aurora High, I have looked at our beloved student council, and ask: if I were in their place, what could I do to change the school for the better? Throughout this time, I have come to realize what that is: pretty much nothing. As student council members, the task put forth is to plan a ton of stuff that the faculty simply has no time to do themselves. In terms of things like actual policy, we're meaningless. So why am I running? What goals or promises do I have? The answer is simple: none. I am not going to lead you around with illustrious dreams of a new golden age for Aurora High, because the truth is, it probably won't happen. What I can say is that we will have pretty much what we have had for the last three years: some activities, some sales for future activities, you know the drill. As such, what I can say, is that my term as student body president will likely be the exact same thing as those of presidents before me.

"So remember Aurora, aim low with Zubin Wadia. I can't disappoint you guys if I don't deviate from what we've got already."

---

Credit for the speeches goes to each character's handler.

With that out of the way, on to votes! As with the Prom Royalty Votes, votes are one per character, characters should be in the thread for only the space of a single post, and voting should be an in-character affair. For simplicity's sake, we will assume that the end result of the election goes however the votes actually cast go, since we probably won't see every character actually voting.

As with Prom, each handler may post here outside of the normal thread chain. Basically, all the protocols of the Prom thread should be followed here as well.

Candidates may vote (it is assumed that they filled ballots out after leaving the stage) and may vote for themselves. Handlers may vote for their own characters (in fact, it is likely somewhat inevitable; we wouldn't want to railroad a handler's entire roster into voting one way), it should just make sense in character.

This thread will run until Friday, June 8, 2012.

(OOC: After reviewing the candidates profiles, I changed Ruth's vote)

Ruth started to yawn as soon as the candidates' speeches were over, but he was lucky enough to be one of the first people to vote. The vice-president elections were easy, Amaranta seemed more  professional, but Miles seemed kind of...kinder.  Of course Ruth really didn't know either candidate that well, but Miles did seem like someone who would at least here Ruth out.

"Someone you can relate to he said, someone you can trust he said, the voice of the voiceless he said...sorry Amaranta"

Vice-President: Miles Strickland

Now the Presidents were a bit harder to choose, but not by much. Sure, Zubin had some good points about how the student council doesn't really do much, but that doesn't mean they don't do anything at all, and that's just depressing, Naomi....well Naomi seemed like she was changing the entire world. Yeah, Naomi seemed kinda over-dramatic too, but at least she was trying, and that showed something. If there was a meteor about to destroy the earth, Ruth wanted someone who said there was a little bit of hope left, instead of saying "Well...we're boned.".

President: Naomi Bell

Miles Strickland walked backstage after delivering his speech to fetch himself a hot cup of espresso which the staff had brewed for the candidates.

He hoped the other high school students would have enjoyed the simplified easy going approach he had taken in his presentation. These types of things did bore students and hopefully his way of going about it was fun and memorable enough for him to come across as very relatable and likeable enough to vote for. If not, he had also offered a victory pool party at his father's country club for both his campaign and the football team's recent victory against their rivals, if he won this too.

After the speeches were over, Miles went straight to the vote, checking off his own name X : Miles Strickland. He really hoped he'd win. Losing against Mara, with her blatant attitude and lack of tact toward students outside of her friends or the in-crowd would be embarrassing.

She was still invited to the pool party though. He bet Amaranta would look smashing in a two piece.

The choice for president was much easier for him than for others. He checked off his cousin's name for the victory. X : Naomi Bell.

Miles took another sip of his espresso, as he finished up his voting.

Good luck, cousin.

Ryan Banks leant back into his chair as the candidates made their speeches, caught between listening politely and actually being interested. He was never that into school politics, just so long as they didn't try to cut the sports budget, but mandatory attendance can put a new light on things.

When the speeches were done, it became time to cast that tiny little square of paper and make someone's day. The only question now was 'who?'

Vice president: Montalvo sounded like she knew what she was doing, but that was only the parts he had actually been able to keep up with; nothing had really hooked him about her. Miles, however, had done a better job of keeping his attention. If nothing else, he at least sounded like the easier to talk to should he ever need to, unlikely as that may be. With a half shrug of a quickly decided choice, the vote was cast for Miles Strickland.

The choice of president was comparatively harder. Naomi had definitely had the longer speech of the two, a little too long in fact. Ryan had started daydreaming halfway through, so he hadn't totally processed all the promises that weren't sport related. The parts that he had paid attention to seemed okay, he guessed. Zubin, on the other hand, was over before he could even blink. On the one hand, he didn't seem to be promising much at all, but on the other hand he was pretty athletic already, and if anyone was going to keep his side of Aurora going out of the two it was probably him. Thus, Zubin Wadia got his vote.

--------

Dave Russell applauded each candidate in turn, hanging on their every word (as best as he could) as the politics unfolded. Dave liked to think that he was pretty active in the Aurora community, though he couldn't hold a candle to some people and all their clubs, but he'd never found himself running for student politics. That was more for the brainy kids, what with all the numbers and things to be considered; not something that he'd be great at. Better to let someone with the head for it take charge.

Then came vote time. Both vice presidential candidates had their strong points: Amaranta's experience and expertise would most definitely come in handy. However, Miles seemed like the guy who could get on with anyone, and that was probably important in student politics too. Tough choice, tough choice.

He finally settled on Miles Strickland

As for the choice of who would be the new president, he hated to admit it but it wasn't really that hard. Zubin had just seemed like he kind of didn't care. Honest, sure, but Dave had to go with Naomi Bell on this one. With any luck, he could get in on those paint jobs she mentioned too, those had been pretty fun the last time he did one.

Rachael found herself staring at the blank voting slip before her. She knew to pay attention to the speeches, listen to the points, and then form a decision.

President was too easy. Rachael knew she would vote for her friend Naomi Bell when Naomi announced her candidacy, but the speech really made it clear why she should vote for her. Naomi had actual goals and plans. She had a love for the school, and a desire to make it better. Unfortunately, all Zubin had was a bit of unease and uncertainty, something Rachael didn't think was good for a Class President.

Now came the issue of Vice President. Frankly, Rachael was uncertain about Miles and Amaranta. She knew they were in the in-crowd and had a lot of people into them. Rachael never really got to know either. Still, she decided to vote for Miles Strickland. He was Naomi's cousin, and she might get him into shape. Rachael put her ballot in the box, and hoped she made the right decision

---

Claire tapped her fingers on the table. Who was she going to vote for? This was a big deal. She needed to pick the right person for the job. Being in a position of power mattered a lot, and Claire knew that the best president and vice president would have to be someone fitting for the job. She needed a Leslie Knope, not a Joffrey Baratheon.

Claire made a decision. She quikly wrote on the ballot, and looked at the two names.

President: Naomi Bell
Vice President: Amaranta Montalvo

For the most part, Claire knew both girls from Debate Club. Both were very strong orators, and she felt they might be best for the job. She sincerely hoped these girls were her Leslie Knopes.

---

President: Naomi Bell

Going into the election, Sophie wasn't too sure about who to vote for. Then the speeches happened. Zubin was too vague, and Sophie felt like he wasn't that into the job, like he was trying to win for vanity's sake. Then Naomi had to speak. Sophie felt like Naomi completely based her campaign on things to appeal to Sophie. Art projects around the school? Talent shows? Sophie pretty much immediately knew to vote for Naomi.

But now there was Vice President. In a real election, Sophie wouldn't vote for a VP. Now she has to. She was confused. However, thinking back, she felt like Amaranta Montalvo was a bit closer to the ideal politician than Miles Strickland. If anything, Montalvo seemed like someone who would at least be a good partner for Naomi.

Vice President: Amaranta Montalvo

Sophie grinned as she put the ballot in the box. Now to see the reward for her vote.

Jaquilyn Locke's goal was to fill out the ballot the fastest. Her mind had been made up before she sat down.

President: Zubin Wadia

Vice President: Miles Stickland

A kid who was awesome and a kid who wasn't Mara. Two perfect candidates.






Cassidy Kant drummed her fingers on her knees as she thought.

It should probably go to the kids who it means more to...

President: Naomi Bell

The VP candidates seemed equally passionate, but Miles's got Cassidy more energetic. And enthusiasm was something this cheerleader valued. Mara would probably do a good job, but Miles seemed ready to go!

Vice President: Miles Strickland







Joey Polpetta looked at his own ballot. He didn't really care. Zubin was a cool guy, but he didn't really recognize the others. And having spent the period playing poker on his iPod, he couldn't remember who was who.

What was Zubin even running for, again?

Vice President: Zubin Wadia

President: Zubin Wadia

Whatever.

"So, uh, who are you voting for then?"

Owen looked across at Amy as he spoke, who was looking down at her ballot, a frown on her face. She tapped her pencil on the table, then against her lips, before looking at Owen. "I really don't know, actually" she said, sighing. "Don't particularly care, either, to be honest. Not like much of the stuff they do's gonna affect me, much."

Owen grinned as he ticked Vice-President: Miles Strickland. "Hey, I don't care much about this either. Just pick the people you like the best, or something." Amy raised an eyebrow at Owen's statement. "Is that what you're doing?" she asked, tapping her pencil again.

"Yup. Well, that for one, and who I think's gonna be funniest for the other." As he said this, Owen put down a vote for President: Zubin Wadia. "Let's put it this way. Eddie Izzard probably wouldn't make a good prime minister, but I'd much rather have him than David bloody Cameron."

Laughing, Amy looked back down at her ballot. "Fair enough" she said, before chewing on the end of her pencil. The only problem with Owen's advice was that she didn't really know any of the candidates too well. Instead, she decided to vote for the people who'd even slightly interested her with their speeches. Miles had said a whole lot of nothing, and Zubin didn't seem to really care either way. After mulling it over a bit more, Amy eventually put down her votes.

Vice-President: Amaranta Montalvo
President: Naomi Bell

---

Chase finished applauding the candidates, then stretched out his arms and scratched the back of his neck. Election time! Chase had actually considered putting himself forwards for Vice-President this year. He'd given that idea up when his mom reminded him that he'd have to write, and read out, a speech. Chase had had a vision of dropping the paper with his speech on in front of the entire school, or forgetting his lines, and that had been the end of that.

So. Who deserved the President and Vice-President titles this year then? Chase considered Vice-President first. Amaranta or Miles. No contest.

Vice-President: Amaranta Montalvo

Then it was time for his vote for President. Chase recalled the two candidates speeches. Zubin's ideas of how Aurora had already peaked were kinda depressing, whereas Naomi's speech was far more detailed, positive and promising. To be fair to Zubin, even if his speech had been more positive, he still would have most likely chosen Naomi.

President: Naomi Bell

Well now, that was easier than I thought…

---

Francis had filled out the first half of his ballot before the candidates had even finished speaking. A large check was next to Vice-President: Amaranta Montalvo. Francis leaned back in his seat and smirked as he listened to Miles waffling on. Yeeaah, keep on talkin' and do nothin' but make hot air. You're already behind one vote.

Once the rest of the candidates had done their speeches, Francis began to consider who to choose as President. This one was much tougher to decide. He was cool with both Naomi and Zubin, and whilst Naomi's speech had generally been better, he had to laugh at the idea that Zubin could probably be the first person in his position to fulfil all of his goals. Sighing, Francis closed his eyes, swung his pencil over the two names and jabbed down. He opened his eyes, and smirked.

President: Zubin Wadia

Fair enough.

Frank Reyes looked at the ballot. His eyes gazed upon the candidates names. He really didn't care much about this sort of thing. He pondered briefly before deciding that if these people were going to represent them, they would have to make up for good eyecandy. The prospect of catfights between Amaranta Montalvo and Naomi Bell was an added bonus.

He eyed up the chosen names in his ballot.

President:Naomi Bell

Vicepresident: Amaranta Montalvo

This should be fun.

This assembly was total bullshit. Adam figured the student government didn't even do anything except pad resumes for college-bound rich kids. He'd certainly never figured out what their role was. Now, he had to sit and listen to people droning on. Worse, he had to listen to people he didn't like droning on.

Miles was a stuck up, jerkish asshole. Mara was a stuck up, jerkish bitch. Adam found the two of them kissing up to the school kinda funny, but he found the thought of it working—and the inevitability of one of them getting the position—abhorrent. As such, he felt there was only one way to vote.

Vice President: None of the above

Yeah, he could've tossed in something funny, written down "Dirty Harry" or something, but the fact was, Adam wasn't kidding. He legitimately didn't want to see either of the candidates anywhere near even the sort of fake authority represented by a school position, and he wanted whoever counted the votes to know it. He briefly regretted not running himself. The Anti-Asshole Ticket had a nice ring to it. Granted, Adam had even less interest in being involved in student government than in seeing it fall to pieces, so he probably wouldn't have gotten very far.

The first presidential speech was ridiculously long. Naomi wasn't awful, though Adam understood that she was related to Miles, so that was a mark against her. In the end, however, the deciding factor was the second candidate's speech.

President: Zubin Wadia

Zubin wrapped stuff up quick as a wink, meaning less of Adam's time wasted on nonsense. That was a leadership philosophy he could get behind.

---

Voting in the school election was not really what Susan wanted to be doing right now. She wasn't very interested in the politics or issues in play here. She didn't know anyone on the ticket that well.

Miles and Mara both seemed like pretty decent people. As far as Susan knew, they both ran in the popular circles. They were both pretty charming and intelligent. Mara's platform was based largely on her experience, while Miles focused on his ability to form a rapport with others. Both sounded like they knew what they were talking about.

Susan ended up deciding rather frivolously.

Vice President: Amaranta Montalvo

Important positions could always do with more female voices, and Mara knew her stuff. Experience could sometimes be more important than listening to others; what if the masses wanted something terrible? Susan knew that popularity did not equate to quality. That was one of the biggest, easiest lessons in the alt rock scene. Granted, the inverse wasn't necessarily true either. Plenty of great stuff was well respected. What it took was someone with discerning taste to sort the good from the bad.

She was prepared for another tough choice from the presidential candidates. In the end, though, it seemed like Naomi's platform was that she knew what she was doing and Zubin's platform was that he didn't. That was not a very hard choice at all.

President: Naomi Bell

Susan didn't want someone who didn't care running any part of her high school experience. The student council didn't get to do much, but the last thing she wanted was somebody ruining Prom for a laugh or something stupid like that. No, professionalism would carry the day.

---

Elections were actually pretty interesting to Lydia. She liked getting a chance to hear her classmates talk, to see how they felt about school and what they thought was important. The student government might not have done all that much, but Lydia still wanted good people in charge of it.

The speeches all took very different approaches. That was good. It kept things interesting and displayed the differences in the candidates' philosophies well.

It was difficult to choose between the vice presidential candidates. They both seemed really confident and capable. Lydia found herself slightly more persuaded by the appeal to democracy, though.

Vice President: Miles Strickland

She liked the idea that electing someone wasn't the end of the potential participation of the student body in the running of their own school. She had no doubt that whichever candidate won would do a great job, but Miles just had a pitch that appealed to her a little more.

The presidential debates were a lot easier for Lydia to decide.

President: Naomi Bell

Naomi just seemed to want the position a lot more than Zubin did. Lydia figured if she was so interested and had put so much work into her speech, she should have the job.

---

Emily wished that she could have just filled out the ballot and then left. She'd picked her votes way before the assembly, in large part because she was voting completely along party lines. This was a loyalty thing, loyalty to her friends. It didn't matter if they'd do well in their positions or not, though it just so happened that Emily had pretty high confidence in the aptitude of both of her picks.

Vice President: Miles Strickland
President: Naomi Bell

Miles and Naomi ran in similar circles to Emily. They were a lot more straight-lace than she was, but that was okay. Mara was pretty alright too, but she just wasn't as close to Emily as Miles was.

Votes recorded, Emily considered giving them to a friend to turn in and trying to sneak out of the assembly. Naomi was just beginning her speech, and knowing her it would be a long one. Unfortunately, there were too many people and there was too little movement. There was no way she'd get to the door without being noticed and chastised.

With a sigh, Emily let her body relax and dug around for her MP3 player. She just hoped the speeches weren't exceedingly lengthy.

---

The elections were not particularly important to Steven. Most of the candidates seemed to be taking things too seriously for him to make fun of in a column in good conscience, and he didn't have much interest in the outcome of this race anyways. He'd already written he pre-election predictions (they called for George W. Bush to pull ahead at the last second due to confusion over butterfly ballots, with Bridges mopping up next term). He really hoped to get back to interesting stuff soon. His classmates weren't terrible speakers, but they all had a lot to learn about being entertaining and persuasive.

Neither of the prospective VPs really did it for Steven. They both had reputations to contend with. Steven didn't publish all the dirt he dug up on people, but he sure filed it away for later. Really, he was just thankful these two were contending for the less important position.

He decided that, when faced with two unattractive choices, the best option was the third.

Vice President: Hunter S. Thompson for Sheriff of Aspen. Freak Power!

The presidential race wasn't such a sorry state of affairs. Naomi, at least, made token nods towards professionalism and literacy. That was enough for Steven to feel pretty good about supporting her.

President: Naomi Bell

Democratic duty performed, Steven filed out of the auditorium with everyone else, even passing interest in the election fading quickly.