My First Election
Written on Tuesday, 28 November 2006 – "Election Night"
The Cambridge Union Society has extremely strict rules about its elections. No one can mention the election (in any way) using an electronic method. Person to person calls or face-to-face chats are the only method by which members can campaign or speak of the election. Now that my election is finished however, I’m free to write and tell you about it.
It went very well. Active members in the union showed great support for my candidacy as did my fellow Gates Scholars, Wolfson Court friends, and other friends that I’ve made over the past few months. I disliked the fact that I was so focused on gathering votes over the past few weeks, but I’ve enjoyed meeting so many random people (by walking up to them and introducing myself in various venues and circumstances). Because I worked fairly hard on my first contested election, I think it was a success (though I won’t know if it was a victory for another few hours).
I ran against a friendly young woman who was part of a slate of candidates who all campaigned for each other (making it very difficult for an independent candidate like me to win). It was a clean campaign, but certainly an uphill battle for me.
A WIN FOR DEMOCRACY
(Below, a picture of me in front of my computer after 13 hours of campaigning on election day)
There weren’t many people in the room who though I was going to win. Or at least that’s the way it seemed when people lined up to shake my hand after the announcement was finally made by the Secretary and Vice President and the President of the Cambridge Union Society at approximately 1:00 am on Wednesday morning. While there were some contested elections, the one election that everybody thought would be a close one, was the election for Treasurer of the Union.
“For the position of Treasurer, Easter Term, candidate Tristan Brown is hereby duly elected.”
As I calmly shook the hands of a dozen or so people who quickly crowded around me, I was told that at least in recent history (and perhaps in all of Cambridge Union history) it was unprecedented for someone to run for Treasurer of the Union in their first term and win. And apparently my running as an independent candidate (against a slate of candidates) meant that such a feat was all the more likely to be the first of its kind.
The feeling as I left the Union around 2:00 am was a feeling of pride. Pride for my political and campaign skills but mostly pride for the democratic process. My campaign had not been about getting people to go vote for me. It had in large part been about getting people to elect the most qualified people when they went to vote (whoever the voters believed that person to be).
In the days following the election a number of people told me that my election actually gave them a renewed sense of hope for democracy. I wasn’t supposed to win and people knew that. A number of people told me that I was the first candidate that they voted for in any election that actually won, and in their minds actually deserved to win. Getting people to vote for the first time is a huge step in getting them to vote for a lifetime. If people come out to vote in two consecutive elections they are much more likely to vote in all future elections.
If just one person gained a deeper sense of the power of democracy because of my candidacy, the hard work that I spent campaigning will surely have been worth it.
The Cambridge Union Society has extremely strict rules about its elections. No one can mention the election (in any way) using an electronic method. Person to person calls or face-to-face chats are the only method by which members can campaign or speak of the election. Now that my election is finished however, I’m free to write and tell you about it.
It went very well. Active members in the union showed great support for my candidacy as did my fellow Gates Scholars, Wolfson Court friends, and other friends that I’ve made over the past few months. I disliked the fact that I was so focused on gathering votes over the past few weeks, but I’ve enjoyed meeting so many random people (by walking up to them and introducing myself in various venues and circumstances). Because I worked fairly hard on my first contested election, I think it was a success (though I won’t know if it was a victory for another few hours).
I ran against a friendly young woman who was part of a slate of candidates who all campaigned for each other (making it very difficult for an independent candidate like me to win). It was a clean campaign, but certainly an uphill battle for me.
A WIN FOR DEMOCRACY
(Below, a picture of me in front of my computer after 13 hours of campaigning on election day)
There weren’t many people in the room who though I was going to win. Or at least that’s the way it seemed when people lined up to shake my hand after the announcement was finally made by the Secretary and Vice President and the President of the Cambridge Union Society at approximately 1:00 am on Wednesday morning. While there were some contested elections, the one election that everybody thought would be a close one, was the election for Treasurer of the Union.
“For the position of Treasurer, Easter Term, candidate Tristan Brown is hereby duly elected.”
As I calmly shook the hands of a dozen or so people who quickly crowded around me, I was told that at least in recent history (and perhaps in all of Cambridge Union history) it was unprecedented for someone to run for Treasurer of the Union in their first term and win. And apparently my running as an independent candidate (against a slate of candidates) meant that such a feat was all the more likely to be the first of its kind.
The feeling as I left the Union around 2:00 am was a feeling of pride. Pride for my political and campaign skills but mostly pride for the democratic process. My campaign had not been about getting people to go vote for me. It had in large part been about getting people to elect the most qualified people when they went to vote (whoever the voters believed that person to be).
In the days following the election a number of people told me that my election actually gave them a renewed sense of hope for democracy. I wasn’t supposed to win and people knew that. A number of people told me that I was the first candidate that they voted for in any election that actually won, and in their minds actually deserved to win. Getting people to vote for the first time is a huge step in getting them to vote for a lifetime. If people come out to vote in two consecutive elections they are much more likely to vote in all future elections.
If just one person gained a deeper sense of the power of democracy because of my candidacy, the hard work that I spent campaigning will surely have been worth it.
posted by Tristan Brown | 3:08 PM
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