Why I am voting No Quorum in the 2024 Senate Elections

Dear Editors,

There were several irregularities in the Election Assembly this year. Firstly, one of the candidates, Tiān Yí Fán, who was not able to attend the event, submitted a seemingly machine-generated speech which contained no mention of Reed College, Senate, or any comprehensible policy I could determine at all. Another one of the candidates, Bridger Alaga, when asked how he would represent views which disagreed with his, answered that few people attended this event, that Senate was poorly representative as a whole, and that he would be supporting his own views. These are not the positions of someone who I can trust with responsibility for representing the student body fairly, and for distributing the funds we decide which clubs should receive. If you can't even say you'll try to respond fairly, to listen to student concerns, how can we the students trust you will represent our interests?

These would normally not be problems. Normally, No Quorum is reserved for elections which themselves are poorly run. However, there are exactly six seats for Senate, and exactly six senators running. There is no write-in option. The only thing one’s vote determines this year is which senator gets a semester-long seat rather than a full term. Any vote in this election will produce the same result. The only way to express your dislike of the current state of this election—and the only way to express your disapproval of six candidates running unopposed—is to vote No Quorum.

If this election passes quorum, every candidate running will be on Senate, and frankly, that should not be true for every person whose views were heard at the assembly. I cannot in good conscience vote that this election will produce a good result for our student body. I hope you consider doing the same.