By ALANMICHAEL RUBIN (#0265)

When voting in the real world, we choose to elect a candidate based on the following: ample experience, speaking ability, relatability, character, intelligence, and their ability to stand out. So why shouldn’t these same standards be applied to the election candidates at Boys State? 

While attending this week’s party conventions, an evident split in voters and candidates is clearly present. This split lies between those who are taking the role of participation extremely seriously, and those who take it… well just not quite as serious as the aforementioned group. Knowing the attendees of Boys State (juniors in high school), it’s easy to gather what’s meant by this. Now, immaturity at Boys State is absolutely a great thing, from the distinct chants, to cracking jokes in the dorms, it simply makes the experience more fun. But while immaturity is welcomed in these situations, there are others where it should not be, especially at elections!

A key reason why this oftentimes encouraged immaturity is negative is because it can result in the unintentional masking of some of the candidates’ extremely impressive qualities. After one person begins the “trend” of being immature, it’s difficult to re-engage the crowd onto genuinely serious topics and it sets a standard for future candidates to also feel obliged to act immature. 

A primary example of this was Tuesday, at the second nationalist convention. It all began with immature candidates and stayed that way for the most part. One especially funny candidate was voted for and nobody gained a majority so the election was moved on to the next round of voting. Second round means second speech and frankly, his second speech was captivating. While in the first round he was simply rambling jokes, which made him a questionable person to vote for, in the second round he expanded on his experience and qualifications in a more serious manner, while also maintaining a jovial environment. In the first round, the polls were tight, but the candidate previously mentioned, because of his slight adjustment, obtained multiple unanimous decisions from the participating counties. 

But what does this really mean? The immaturity has voters split almost equally between serious and not serious, so it leads to gridlock in the processes of democracy, which ultimately leads to more time spent voting – for example, more rounds, which makes it more difficult to focus and more importantly harder to enjoy the serious and more meaningful speeches. 

Boys State is meant to be fun, but when we sit to elect our officials, all the jokes should be left at the door by candidates and voters. The simple decision to not entertain these displays of immaturity would go far to accelerate the pace of our conventions and raise the quality of our elected officials.

*AlanMichael’s opinion does not necessarily reflect the entirety of the New York Boys State or its staff members, delegates or stakeholders.*