Homecoming; the biggest football game of the year, the melodramatic popularity contest for underclassmen who can’t attend prom, the increase in school spirit, and the chance for your vote to count. That is, if you vote. It seems as though some people just don’t vote for homecoming, and when they do, it’s not for the reasons one may think.

I did research and asked seventeen different students whether or not they voted for homecoming. Out of the seventeen students, eleven told me they did vote, while the other six told me  they didn’t vote, or weren’t really able to.

Out of the six students who didn’t vote, five of them stated that it was because they didn’t  know their login information for naviance. It seems as though this is an obstacle for some students at FTHS that most don’t seem to care much about, as it isn’t really used except for homecoming and BOTC for most students.

After asking sophomore Daniela Denrich, if she voted she told me, “No, because I had to do it on naviance and since I haven’t been on there in a while I don’t remember my login info so I didn’t bother.” With the lack of naviance usage, it begins to make voting a problem for students.

But is the lack of information the only problem? Out of the eleven students who said yes, when asked if they voted, nine stated that they only voted because a friend was a nominee. I then asked a follow up question to the eleven students asking; if a friend wasn’t on the ballot would you have still voted? Shockingly six out of the eleven told me that they would not have voted.

Student Michael Stern, a sophomore, believes it is important to vote. “I feel it’s important to show our opinion, as a student body, as to who represents our grade the best.” he said after he was asked if he would have still voted without a friend on the ballot. As opposed to sophomore, Meghan Ambrosia, who stated, “Then I wouldn’t know who to pick and I wouldn’t want to pick a random person.”

With homecoming being so popular, it would seem that more people would want to vote for the students they think should represent their grade. Problems could be that naviance is prohibiting some people from voting, students’ lack of energy when it comes to voting, or just the fact that they don’t know the nominees. Whatever it may be or whatever the outcome is, someone is going home with a crown and an experience that they won’t soon forget!