Senior Juan Carlos Pascual-Barragan won the election for Band president last Friday. The position was open to anyone willing to take it.

“Anyone who wanted to go could volunteer and they’d have to give a speech saying why they’re qualified and what they wanted to do,” Pascual-Barragan said. “I have been involved since the ninth grade, I have done the pit orchestra, I have tried out for All-County and All-State. I’ve done saxophone camp since 10th grade, and I have also gotten a superior at state solo and ensemble.”

Pascual-Barragan’s biggest competitor was Joel Soucheck who had some concerns over how the election was run. His main point of discontent was with the lack of absentee ballots which meant that all the students who were absent the day of the voting didn’t get to vote at all.

“The absence of absentee ballots that would have changed the outcome of the election possibly,” Soucheck said.

The ballots were also counted differently than the previous year.

“Last year we had two impartial students count the ballots instead of [Christopher] Houze doing it himself.” Soucheck said. “It didn’t seem quite as laid out as in previous years. We didn’t exactly have set rules on what you could and couldn’t do. It was completely changed [from] how we did it last year.”

The position of band president involves assisting the band director and assuring the band runs smoothly.

“It means to help the band out with fundraising, [keep] the band in order, and when Mr. Houze is busy, getting the band warmed up,” Pascual-Barragan said.

By Tyler McIntyre