NEW MASCOT
VOTE HELP & FAQS

Please contact us here for help with the new mascot vote.

How were the mascot finalists selected?

In February, an open call to the Oakwood community brought in over 200 unique ideas for Oakwood’s new mascot. From this group, The Mascot Task Force identified 12 ideas that best aligned with our new mascot guidelines and ways the mascot will be used. The Task Force also had extensive deliberations informed by feedback from a range of Oakwood constituents—middle and high school student advisory groups, athletic team captains, alumni and parent volunteer leaders, faculty, and staff. This feedback, from 174 individuals, and 28 advisory groups, including approximately 360 students, led the task force to select our three finalists.

Who can vote?

Students, faculty, staff, alumni, current parents/guardians, and trustees are able to vote for Oakwood’s new mascot.

How is the vote taking place?

Oakwood School is utilizing an independent service, ElectionBuddy, to collect ballots. Elementary students will vote in class utilizing a paper ballot. Students, faculty, and staff will be emailed an electronic ballot using their Oakwood-provided email address. Alumni, current parents/guardians, and trustees will be emailed a ballot using the email address on file at Oakwood. If we do not have a valid email address, alumni and current parents/guardians will not receive a ballot.

What election method is being used?

The new mascot vote is using a ranked-choice (more on that below) and weighted election method. The votes of students, faculty, staff, and alumni will automatically be weighted as “double votes”, meaning these votes will be tallied twice. The votes of current parents/guardians and trustees will count as one vote. This weighted approach was decided upon by the Mascot Task Force to emphasize the voice of students, past students, and the on-campus community while also ensuring that current parents/guardians and trustees are included. The individuals who are weighted as “double votes” will only vote once; their vote will be tallied twice automatically. If someone belongs to multiple constituencies, their vote will be weighted as a “double vote” if they belong to one of the weighted constituencies. For example, an alumna who is also a current parent/guardian will have her vote weighted as a “double vote.”

What is ranked-choice voting?

Ranked-choice voting, also referred to as instant-runoff voting, is a method that asks voters to rank all candidates in order of preference. Once voting is completed, ballots are first counted for each voter’s top choice. If any candidate has more than half of the votes based on first-choices, that candidate wins. If not, then the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated and the voters who selected the eliminated candidate as a first choice then have their votes added to the totals of their second choice. This process continues until a candidate has more than half of the votes and that candidate is the winner. (This information has been sourced from Wikipedia’s article on instant-runoff voting)