By Noah Bell and Max Rosenberg
Theme Editors
Mira Costa freshman Jordan Conrad and juniors Alex Gist, Camilia Rowshan and Ellie Shalvarjian volunteered as interns in the campaigning processes for two candidates for the Manhattan Beach City Council, Nancy Hersman and Richard Montgomery, for over a month prior to the March 7 Manhattan Beach City Council election.
Gist, Rowshan and Shalvarjian assisted with Hersman’s campaign, while Conrad worked alongside Montgomery. The students’ main purpose was to reach out to multiple demographics through a variety of different tactics, especially targeting high school students that are eligible to vote, Gist said.
“I learned a lot about how local campaigns are run, how specific demographics are targeted and how to create a plan of attack to accomplish difficult tasks like getting a candidate elected,” Gist said. “I really enjoyed working on the campaign and getting a completely different view on local politics than I have ever had [before].”
Hersman’s student-volunteers did not work directly on her campaign, but focused on spreading the news of the election to young adults at Costa, Hersman said. Hersman said that the experience of taking an active part in the election gave students an opportunity to learn about the role of City Council in Manhattan Beach along with the impact of local elections.
“I think that the students who helped, as well as the students who they reached to register to vote and hopefully voted, learned important skills about leadership, civics and the importance of being involved in an election,” Hersman said.
PHOTOS: A closer look at the election and students’ role in it
Gist, Rowshan and Shalvarjian worked with Hersman’s campaign manager and sitting councilmember, Amy Howorth, to create methods that would increase high school voters’ awareness in local politics. Gist and Rowshan asked Costa’s government, economics, and Model United Nation teachers, all of whom have senior students, to announce the election and encourage students who are 18 years old and over to vote.
“My favorite part has been finding out about the little-known but truly important issues and that the city council members have an integral part of deciding for our city,” Gist said. “It doesn’t really seem like you will see any changes because of city council elections, but they have a lot more say in future events and rulings than a lot of us believe and trying to get other people to understand this has been really interesting.”
Additionally, Gist and Shalvarjian asked Principal Dr. Ben Dale to announce the election over the loudspeaker both on Feb. 12 and Feb. 21, during which time he also told students to register to vote on rockthevote.org. Gist, Shalvarjian and Rowshan also used Snapchat stories to publicize the election and sent informative posts in Facebook groups that included potential voters.
“I enjoyed the experience of trying to reach out to younger crowds because with local elections there is a serious problem with people under the age of 35 voting,” Rowshan said. “This will help me in the future because I know of the weight that a single vote can have on an election.”
Howorth explained the importance of each and every vote to the student-volunteers, and that motivated the students to work hard to spread information about the City Council elections, Hersman said. On election day, there were 12,680 votes recorded and the gap between Montgomery, who finished third, and Mark Burton, who came in fourth, was only 129 votes, according to lavote.net.
“I wish we could have brought them in to do more to help with my campaign because they were very impressive in wanting to do more to help,” Hersman said. “We need to start earlier in reaching out to students because they have such a great capacity for getting things done.”
According to Montgomery, he chose Conrad and his other volunteers based on whether they were Manhattan Beach residents and if they or their family members had previously volunteered with local elections. Conrad’s internship consisted of walking the precinct, making phone calls, scouting the community for places to put Montgomery’s campaign signs and placing campaign signs at various locations.
“I wanted to try and give back to [Montgomery] by volunteering because he helped so much at Grand View Elementary,” Conrad said. “He also has given so much to the community over the years, and I wanted to give something back to him by volunteering.”
Conrad is uncertain about a future in politics and although Gist, Rowshan, and Shalvarjian cannot see themselves pursuing a career in politics, the four students felt that working on a campaign was eye-opening in that it showed both how much everyone’s vote counts and how important it is to be aware of current issues, according to Rowshan.
“I’ve never really considered any job in politics, but things like this election have definitely made staying in the know about politics something that I care about,” Gist said.
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