Goshen High votes on student advisers
May 20—GOSHEN — Goshen High Schools students Thursday voted on who would represent them in city government in the coming year.
The elections have been in place since 2016.
"He (Mayor Jeremy Stutsman) saw that there was an Indiana code that would allow a student youth adviser to be on the city council, which basically means they can come to all the meetings, sit in with the council members. They can't vote on anything but they can have time to speak free of the council members," said Elkhart County's voter registration office manager Chad Clingerman. "He decided that instead of just picking someone as the statute allows, he would actually open it up to partner with the county to come to the high school and have the kids vote on it, instead of picking someone at random."
Six student advisory seats were up for election, with only the Goshen City Council race contested. GCS students Jonathan Beas, Steven Peel and Karen Tayaguya-Delgado were up for election in that race.
Other candidates were Briza Tayaguya-Delgado for Mayor's Environmental Advisory Committee, Elizabeth Dilworth for Parks & Recreation Board, Tyra Gichobi for Community Relations Commission, Samara Cleveland for Shade Tree Board and Lauren Grant for Goshen School Board. Nappanee also does these elections, although the pandemic has slowed the elections for the Wa-Nee community. Clingerman said.
"Especially if you know the person, and you know how they are, and you can connect to them, when you vote, it's going to mean something," said Tonie Ontiveros, freshman at Goshen High School. "It's a chance for them to put us out there."
Students could vote of their own volition during passing periods or during lunchtime, and some teachers even brought their classes out to vote.
Voting machines, the same ones used during the county elections, are used for the student elections. Voter registration created a custom ballot for the schoolwide election that worked with the machines the same way ballots used during the primary elections do.
"Giving them a voice in the community is one of the benefits," said GHS social studies teacher Jenny Clark. "They also experience, with the procedure, just what an election is, what the machines look like, and it takes away some of the intimidation and fear of becoming future voters. What does it mean to show your voter ID, to check your registration, and they get to do this in a safe space where there's a little less pressure. If this encourages them to become future voters, then all the better."
Even the candidates abide by similar statutes to the ones that the national, state and regional government elections do.
"When they decide that they are going to run for election, they have a similar process where they have to get signatures in order to [be] on the ballot, and there's some actual county forms that they fill out and submit. We've reduced the process and simplified it, but there is some overlap with what it's like in real world."
Student advisory candidates even made campaign posters and are able to place them within a certain distance of the voting center, which was in the commons.
Due to a scheduling conflict, Goshen Mayor Jeremy Stutsman won't be available to announce winners until Friday.
Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.
