By The Baron Banner Editorial Board
The Baron Banner’s editorial board count: 15 editors disapprove of FVHS ASB’s lack of transparency regarding this year’s election results, and one editor has abstained from participating in the article.
Fountain Valley High School’s (FVHS) Associated Student Body (ASB) recently confirmed the addition of a sixth member to the 2024-2025 Executive Board. Despite student curiosity about the deviation from the usual selection process, ASB has avoided releasing each candidate’s individual vote count. When questioned about the decision to add a sixth member to the Board, after initially announcing only five names on the intercom during morning announcements, in the April 25 House of Representatives meeting, ASB’s advisor declined to comment.
This isn’t the first time that ASB has failed to provide details in their Executive Board selection processes, including the order of the top vote recipients. In fact, they completely abandoned elections in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2021, instead opting for the ASB advisor alone to judge which candidates were qualified without any input from the student body.
ASB and its members have undoubtedly dedicated tremendous time and effort to building a positive campus environment, whether organizing memorable assemblies, supporting our athletics teams or putting together dances and other exciting events that shape our high school experience. However, with this leadership position comes a responsibility to build a reliable connection with the student body, founded on trust and transparency.
Outside of our FVHS community, voters regularly participate in democratic election processes, which are carried out with transparency and should serve as a model for our own student government. If the national government were to withhold the vote counts for each presidential candidate in this coming election, one could only imagine the public outrage and threat the decision would pose to the health of our democracy.
Although the ASB By-Laws explain that the ASB advisor and current Executive Council appoint the top five vote recipients to their specific positions (and a sixth if necessary), there still has always been an air of mystery surrounding the exact factors that influence the final decisions. For example, do vote tallies play a major role in delegating positions, or do they hold no importance past the initial selection of the top five candidates?
While the typical club on campus does not usually detail the selection process for its board, ASB’s unique role as a representation of the whole student body places it in an entirely different position that requires this type of openness and communication. As of now, though, the average student cannot easily access even the ASB Bylaws for this school year, let alone the precise election results.
This year, ASB declined to explain why it was necessary to exercise the clause in the ASB Bylaws that allows the advisor and current Executive Council to grant a position to a sixth council member almost a month after initially releasing results.
We understand ASB’s reasoning for not granting positions based on popular vote alone; the advisor and current council members may have a more extensive understanding of the strengths of different candidates and can assign titles accordingly. However, as long as the student body participates in any form of democratic election, it is only reasonable that they also have access to the details of its results. The manner by which council members are appointed is not our main concern — it’s the way that the process is shielded from those ASB serves.
In addition to denying Baron Banner’s repeated requests for a list of the candidates who received the top six votes and their respective vote totals, ASB declined to comment on a student’s question regarding the addition of the sixth council member at the House of Representatives meeting on April 25. The value of the House of Reps lies in its function as a forum connecting students to their administration and student government representatives. In failing to provide transparency on the ASB Executive Council elections, ASB undermined the expectation of student involvement and connection to their elected representatives.
We hope that, in the future, ASB may consider their obligation to the students they represent and choose to increase transparency regarding elections and any other decisions they may make on behalf of the student body.
