By: Alex Gillet (#0189)

One of the most anticipated parts of Boys’ State is the elections. On Sunday, the citizens got their first taste of these elections on the state level. Since the first day of the Boys State program, the counties and cities have been electing individuals to fill positions on their respective levels. The citizens are split into two parties: the Federalists and the Nationalists.  Sunday night held the first state party convention, where boys in each party selected by their County Chairman ran for party candidacy for state positions including Party Clerk, Party Secretary, and Party Chairman. The nationalist conventions in particular featured unexpected victories, shattering losses, and loads of lighthearted fun in between.

Following preliminary rule amendments, the first election that took place was for Party Clerk. One person per county went on stage, delivered powerful speeches, and attempted to communicate their deservance of every boy’s vote. After the first round of votes, the candidates from McKneally, Kogutek, Scheiberling, Pedro, and Troiola were deemed as the top five candidates, with 29, 32, 37, 33, and 51 votes, respectively. After a second round of voting, allowing citizens to vote for only one of the top five candidates, the candidates from McKneally, Pedro, and Troiola remained and the election proceeded since a two-thirds majority did not elect a single candidate. Finally, with the McKneally candidate receiving 40 votes, the Troiola candidate receiving 74, and the Pedro candidate receiving a whopping 165 votes, the candidate from Pedro county was elected as the Party Clerk.

The election went a similar way for both the Party Secretary and Party Chairman. For the former, the election started off with the candidate from Stafford, Scheiberling, Wong, Pedro, and Troiola being elected to move on to the next round of voting. The candidates from Scheiberling, Pedro, and Troiola received enough votes in the following round to move into one final election. Due to the smart decision made by the Scheiberling candidate during his speech (he did a backflip), he was elected as the Party Secretary. The Chairman election got quite heated. Each of the candidates delivered some of the most fiery speeches of the night. In the end, with an unbelievable 265 votes, the Kogutek candidate won due to his enthusiasm and initiative engraved in his speech. 

The following day, on Monday, two more party conventions were held. In the afternoon, elections were held for the Seven Judges of Court of Appeals, Attorney General, and State Comptroller. The first of which featured a one-round vote that would select seven candidates to take on the role of a Judge of Court of Appeals. The candidates from Roosevelt, Kogutek, Fish, Stemper, Scheiberling, Wong, Pedro, and Triola won with a respective 31, 29, 27, 29, 77, 24, 21, and 26 votes. Next up was our State Comptroller vote, which featured candidates articulating their expertise in finance and treasury. After three runoffs, the candidate from Stember won with 149 votes in the final round. Finally, the Attorney General race was our closest yet. After THREE runoffs, the candidates from Stember, “Terry”, and Troiola, Patrick Klinkenberg, went head-to-head in one final runoff to decide the winner. In a stunning turn of events, McKneally county sent twenty-five of their votes to be abstained, helping bridge the gap between the votes received between the two candidates. In the end, “Terry” was elected as Attorney General with 163 votes on a fourth runoff. 

The final convention occurred later Monday night, where the nationalists selected candidates for two final positions: Lieutenant Governor and Governor. Many of the counties opted to throw all of their support behind their own candidate, leading to a four-way tie between counties with 28 votes and a seven-candidate round two. After expecting to have a last round of voting with only three candidates, another four-way tie happened, leading to a five-candidate round three. In the end, the candidate from Pedro, #0519, won round three by a landslide, with 206 votes, beating the next most voted candidate by a total of 175 votes.

Finally, it was time for the election for governor. The candidates for governor were given three minutes to deliver their speeches, and deliver they did. Each speech seemed just as fiery and exciting as the last, making it almost impossible to choose the best candidate. Mason Lee stood out by doing a karate kick and jumping off of the stage in an effort to engage and connect with the audience a bit more. These actions stirred a great amount of controversy among the citizens, since it was established vocally by counselors that no flips or physical stunts that could harm the candidate could be performed during their speeches (see “backflip,” paragraph three). Some individuals were demanding repercussions on Lee for his stunts, while others stood behind his action, since the rule in question was not established as an official rule in the Boys’ State handbook. In the end, the election continued after an elongated period of discord. The election continued until a third runoff, where the Triola candidate ultimately received the majority of votes with 167 over Lee.

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At the nationalist convention on Monday, June 30th, there was a large unrest due to conflicting views on the role of legionnaires. Previously, they had made a rule prohibiting the candidates from doing physical tricks, specifying backflips and cartwheels. When the prospective governors were giving their speeches, Candidate Li from McKneely county did a spinning karate kick on stage, which greatly increased his popularity. After that, he jumped off stage and walked in the center aisle. Once his speech was done, several other nationalists made a complaint about his actions, arguing that that was in violation of the legionnaires’ rules. Many people went to the center microphone and tried to make their views heard, which is completely allowed, given the fact that we are a democracy. However, the chairman relayed the legionnaires statement and told them that they would have to sit down and that we would not have any time to discuss the legality of a karate kick. This would have been fine, but the chairman was candidate Li’s twin brother. Several people did not realize that he was merely passing on instruction. The sheriffs and state troopers got involved, and attempted to escort boys state citizens away from the center microphone. This raised an uproar. 

I spoke to Chace Lunati from Fish County after. He said, “Well, there was them (legionnaires/counselors) saying we weren’t able to jump off the stage, which the Li running for governor did, and they (the counselors) weren’t telling him not to call people up for motions, and that’s what kicked off a bunch of people going up the the stage. Because any of us, if we were to do a backflip, jump off stage, or act in a disorderly manner, which is in the boys state handbook, we would have been prosecuted for it.” 

I also caught up with Parker Letransky, the Nationalist nomination for Governor from Troiola County. His statement is as follows: “I was up there, and I had a little huddle with Li, and I said, ‘Hey, there’s nothing against you. I think you were amazing’. I genuinely believe he gave the best speech. But, the fact that this is a student-run government, and this is a democracy, having someone come in and say, ‘No, with no vote’, that doesn’t fit in democracy.” 

He also said, “once you start degenerating from that, once you start letting one small thing pass, then another, another, democracy is not gonna work.”

When asked about possible corruption, he said he didn’t believe Chairman Li and Candidate Li were involved in any corruption/bias, but any older legionnaires didn’t have to step in and solve it just then. He also made a statement on how the counties can’t continue to vote by party lines, saying, “If we want to win as a party, I really think we have to vote for the best candidate. We have to start paying attention to speeches, and vote for the best candidate.” 

Similarly, Chace approved of the teamwork between counties, “Luckily, we (majorities of Fish and Stember counties) were all able to band together and vote for one county, so there was no split vote, and we all worked together to fix democracy.”

This progression raises some questions. If this is Boy’s State, and it’s our government, everyone should have been allowed to speak. This was an example of infringement upon our democracy. This was an example of oppression of core American values. It was only 21:15. We had plenty of time to hear all opinions. The leaders of communist countries oppress free speech. This appears to be an infraction on the very government we attempted to build. This cannot be permitted. Democracies are for everyone, and when people don’t have a chance to make their views heard, our American experiment will fail.