Answer:
1. Make school elections an activity for building school spirit
School spirit is a way to showcase school pride and loyalty, and fosters a sense of community to everyone in the school, from the administrators, teachers, students, parents, to the non-teaching staff and support departments. Why not make school elections part of school spirit? It’s a novel way of keeping students’ attention and making things fun. Perhaps perform a mock debate on student issues in the style of Cabinet battle in the Hamilton musical, or have fellow colleagues get involved, even the school principal, say in a pep rally for instance. When school elections are included in school spirit events, this demonstrates to everyone in school that elections matter, that it’s part of the overall school experience2. Use online polling
During the student campaign/election period, keeping students’ attention throughout this period is key. Early on, why not run polls to determine what issues the student body cares about? It can be a mix of serious to funny stuff so as to keep them interested and engaged — issues like the environment (recycling), food waste, increase school funding for club activities, more beverage options for vending machines, more lunch options at the cafeteria, have one extra day of wearing casual clothes in place of school uniforms — and use the online voting software to quickly find out what’s important to them. Likewise, knowing what these issues are will complement what student candidates speak to their peers during the campaign period.
3. Catchy and funny campaign posters
Another way of keeping students interested during the campaign period, (and help remember the candidate(s) running) is to create catchy, funny, yet effective campaign posters. It may be old-fashioned but posters still help candidates stand out. Some examples can be seen below:
