Lexington (MA) High School Senate

LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-FACULTY SENATE

2005-2006

Moderator Peter Lubershane, Assistant Moderator Sam Kafrissen, Secretary Peter Kim

Minutes from Meeting: 11-30-05

I. Call to Order: Meeting is called to order at 7:50 by Moderator Lubershane

II. Approval of Minutes: Minute approved.

III. Approval of Agenda: Agenda approved.

IV. Announcements: 1) The varsity boys' soccer team lost to Acton-Boxborough.

2) Senator Weiser, Sewell, Stulck, Gilmor, Zagaeski, Kresser, Burnett volunteer to serve on the Community Service Committee.

3) Come see the musical Seussical.

V. Open Comments: 1) Senator Jeon will be taking pictures for the yearbook.

2) Communications should look into the current announcement system because there was a dispute over the announcements that were read over the PA system.

VI. Committee Reports: 1) Oversight talked about the announcements issue and found that the administration can appoint anyone to do the pledge and can read any announcements if they wish to. We also talked about the lack of mirrors in the bathrooms.

2) Climate met and is deciding where to send the money raised from the Talent Show.

VII. Voting Method Bill 1) We drafted this bill because we want to eliminate "forced" voting. The first ten candidates last year winning in a landslide illustrates this.

2) Senator Krensky wishes to see the actual statistics from the past years.

3) Many years ago, we had the voting system in place in the main hallway. Voting booths were open all day.

4) When we had the voting in the main hallway, the percentage of students voting was rather small. Many, especially freshmen and sophomores, complained about not having the opportunity to vote. Study hall teachers didn't let kids go either.

5) When you have the ballot forced in front of you, you are "forced" to vote. Another issue with the current system is that the it costs about $350 a year to run. The difference of voter turnout rate between homeroom and hallway voting was not very significant.

6) Few senators demand more statistics.

7) It is not a bad thing if the first ten on the ballot get elected because those people turned in ballots first.

8) Homeroom needs something to do.

9) It is very crowded in the hallway. We should maybe have separate voting booths for each class (making it four in total).

10) Senator Kresser likes the hallway voting idea but not because of the rational stated in the bill.

11) Elections were open before and after school for hallway voting. We had hard time monitoring the tables though.

12) Chaos is good. This is a democratic election.

13) There were problems with hallway voting because we had a lack of volunteers for monitoring the voting booths.

14) The current voting system does not force people to vote.

15) Elections should be a civic lesson. It should reflect American style of voting. If people can't afford to be late for class for the most important election of their life, they don't deserve to vote.

16) Maybe we need a bigger notice saying that students should only vote if they wish to.

17) What about online voting or computer voting?

18) We need to find the midpoint between complete "anarchy" and "forced" voting.

19) Online seems like a good idea.

20) The proposed voting system has only a risk of decreasing the voter turnout percentage.

21) Oregon had a online voting system.

22) Online voting should be discouraged because of the security risks. But computer voting sounds like a great idea.

23) We may even want to borrow official voting booths from the town.

List of Senators Absent from Senate meeting: *Denotes excused/notified absence.

Gao Metzger-Traber Shen* Wilson Bogart Buttaro* Chambers*

Colarusso Normile* Richardson Serrano Tall