Chương 35: The Primaries
The next day was the first Monday of October, where each classroom and faculty division would assign a delegate to vote for a candidate in the primaries. Leo, who was trailing behind Mike in the polls, arrived at school much earlier than me in order to convince more people to vote for him. His actions were viewed as enthusaism by some and desparation by others. Leo mostly campaigned for the freshmen, who were the swing votes that Leo much needed.
The primaries would take place after school in a special afternoon ceremony. Therefore Leo still have a few more hours to convince the students.
Each class have a different way of choosing a delegate, but most classes would choose 5 students randomly and have them represent a candidate in the elections. Voting for the student would mean voting for the candidate the student is representing. The student who received the most votes would become the delegate of the class and must vote for the candidate he or she is representing. Of course, some classes have their own unique rules in choosing delegates passed down by tradition.
In general, Grade 12 will choose their delegates in the 1st period, Grade 11 on the 2nd period and so on. Therefore, Leo have until the 4th period to convince the Grade 9 students to vote for him.
When class started, Leo have been to busy posting on social media to even listen to the teacher. This went on until lunchtime, where we met Rebecca and James, who were both in different classes than us.
"Don't worry Leo! I have already convinced my class to vote for you!" Rebecca exclaimed, patting on Leo's shoulder to reassure him.
"I have also convinced my class to vote for you." James added quietly.
Leo gave a smile, stating, "I'm really not worried about the Grade 10 students. Most of them would be forced to vote for me anyways to maintain the dignity of our grade. After all, I'm the only Grade 10 candidate running. I'm more worried about the Grade 9 students."
James, Rebecca and I nodded.
"I'm going to go to the freshmen and campaign for them." Leo said. "You guys eat lunch without me!"
As Leo walked away, Rebecca commented, "He's really hardworking when he's doing the stuff he's interested in, isn't he?"
"You don't see him that enthusaistic in class." I snorted. "It's better to get good grades than doing these random things."
"Now, now." Rebecca soothed. "Leo's just doing what he likes. You should just support him with the best of your ability."
"Aren't I doing that already?" I rolled my eyes.
****************
In the third period, the classes of Grade 10 started voting for their delegates. Our class unanimously elected Leo as our delegate, since Leo's fame is our class' fame. Other classes also selected their delegates.
After fourth period, the afternoon ceremony started. Leo was sitting nervously next to me, moving around in discomfort. I patted my hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
The staff asked each delegate from each class and faculty division to come up on stage. Leo headed up, with a nervousness that I've never seen before.
There were a total of 30 delegates. The staff moved a whiteboard towards the middle of the stage and gave each delegate a magnet with the sign of a tick. One tick would represent one vote. When a delegate placed a tick on a candidate, the staff would announce the class and the candidate the class voted for.
The sequence of the voting starts from the freshmen to the teachers in ascending order. Threfore, the candidate from Class 9-A walked up to the whiteboard first.
"Class 9-A votes for Mike Alexson."
The first vote of the day started with a disappointment for Leo.
"Class 9-B votes for Mike Alexson."
Leo's face turned ugly.
"Class 9-C votes for Mike Alexson."
Leo's face turned grim.
"Class 9-D votes for Leo Wilson."
Leo gave a sigh of relief.
"Class 9-E votes for Owen Stark."
Leo gave a look of surprise. He did not expect someone other than him and Mike getting a vote from the freshmen.
"Class 9-F votes for Leo Wilson."
After the freshmen delegates stepped down, the people from Grade 10 headed up.
"Class 10-A votes for Leo Wilson."
"Class 10-B votes for Leo Wilson."
"Class 10-C votes for Leo Wilson."
"Class 10-D votes for Mike Alexson."
Leo gave a look of surprise. Class 10-D was James' class. Even though he thought there might be some faithless delegates in Grade 10, he did not expect it to come from James' class.
The rest of Grade 10 voted for Leo Wilson.
Afterwards, the Grade 11 students headed up, all voting for Mike Alexson except for Class 11-F, who voted for Owen Stark and Class 11-E, who voted for Leo Wilson.
Class 11-E was Adrian's class. To my surprise, Adrian was actually the delegate for his class. It seemed I completely underestimated Adrian's abilities.
When the Grade 12 studnents came up, people expected Mike to lose some votes to the other Grade 12 candidates. However, to everyone's surprise, all the delegates from Grade 12 voted for Owen Stark, becoming the dark horse of the primaries. Even the classes from Mike's and the other candidates' class voted for Owen. I narrowed my eyes.
The votes are now tied between Leo, Mike and Owen. Therefore, it is now up to the teachers' votes to determine the winners and loser of the primaries.
****************
[This section is under the POV of Mike Alexson]
As a senior student, Mike was sitting on the front row of the gymnasium. He stared up at the stage, smiling. If Hunter were to see his smile right now, he would want to punch him in the face.
Mike thought, "The votes from the students have gone just as I planned, except for Class 11-E, who was supposed to vote for me. However, this slight mistake will not make a dent on my plans."
"I have already discussed with the principal of my arrangements. If the teachers voted for me in both the primaries and the elections, my father will donate $10 million to the school. Enough for them to build a new swimming pool and new equipments with plenty to spare."
As he waited for the teachers to vote, he couldn't help but deepen his smile.
However, once he heard the next announcement, his face immediately turned ugly.
"The Faculty of the Natural Sciences Division votes for Leo Wilson."
Mike completely did not expect that the teachers would vote for Leo. He cried in his heart, "What is going on?!"
"The Faculty of the Life Sciences Division votes for Leo Wilson."
There were black lines on Mike's forehead.
"The Faculty of the Mathematics Division votes for Leo Wilson."
"The Faculty of the Arts Division votes for Mike Alexson."
"The staff members vote for Leo Wilson."
Finally the principal headed up to the stage and placed his tick next to Leo Wilson's name, signifying his decision.
"The principal votes for Leo Wilson."
"Please give a round of applause for the nominees of this school year for Student Council president: Leo Wilson and Mike Alexson!" The principal headed to the podium and spoke on the microphone.
*******************
[This section is in the POV of Hunter and Leo]
Leo immediately jumped from his seat. He immediately hugged me excitedly.
"OMG! OMG! I WON! I WON! I became the front-runner for this year's elections!" Leo screamed in happiness. He was crying from excitement, jumping up and down while hugging my back.
"Congratulations," I said, surrounding my arms around Leo and smiled slightly.
All the students stood up and clapped.
After the clapping stopped, a staff member announced,
"The final results for this year's primaries are:
Leo Wilson: 13 votes
Louis Wong: 0 votes
Mike Alexson: 9 votes
Adam Lincoln: 0 votes
Owen Stark: 8 votes
Leo Wilson have won the plurality of votes, becoming the front-runner for the elections. The runner-up is Mike Alexson, lagging behind by 4 votes. Leo and Mike please come up to the stage and retrieve your nominee badge."
Leo happily ran up the stage and took the nominee badge and front-runner badge from the staff's hand, immediately replacing it with the candidate badge.
Mike Alexson walked up the stage looking quite gloomy, he reluctantly took the nominee and runner-up badges from the staff and stood next to Leo.
A staff member took out a camera and took a photo of Leo and Mike standing next to each other, before asking them to head back to their seats.
"This concludes today's electoral primaries. The presidential elections will take place on Friday, two weeks from now." The principal said.
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