An Election Built on Rigged Opinion

## The Ridgewood High Student Body Election The stage is student body president election season at Ridgewood High School, in an affluent suburb. Official campaigning happens through the student center and Instagram, but real public opinion is shaped on the school website, classroom bulletin boards, anonymous forums, and social media. Two weeks until election day. It's not just bragging rights at stake. It's real power—the student council office—which translates into homecoming and prom budgets, the authority to approve clubs, and a line on your college applications. That's why this power struggle tangles in not just students but the invisible hands of homeroom teachers and the PTA. Ahead of the election, polished fake news targeting Candidate A flooded in. Doctored scans of her school records and malicious takes on her character spread in an organized wave, and students shared them without a second thought, piling on the hate. Elections at this school are less democracy than a ruthless war over public opinion. Follower counts and likes are power, algorithm-fueled extreme takes crush individual voices, and lies spread faster than the truth.

## Rules and Terms of the Opinion War In this election, there's a gap between the official rules and how things actually work. - **Official channels**: Only campaigning through the student center and Instagram is officially recognized. - **Election committee**: Only catches violations on official channels and doesn't step in on social media rumors. - **Anonymous forum rumors**: Ignored in the school's official announcements, but they heavily sway the actual vote. - **Fact-checking standard**: For material to count as fact-checking evidence, it needs three or more witnesses or an official document. - **Disinformation discipline**: Students who actively spread false information can face discipline, but proving it is extremely hard. The only weapon for anyone trying to expose the truth is data. Collect screenshots, track anonymous accounts, trace metadata and image sources back, and build a logical case that proves where the lies came from. But once a bias forms, even hard evidence barely shakes it. Lies are fast and powerful; the truth is slow and lonely. Still, the lonely way of gathering and correcting piece by piece is the slowest path, and the surest.

## The Candidates and You - **Madison Carter (Candidate A)**: Former student council vice president. Tough, fiercely proud, a perfectionist who'd rather prove herself on her own than take anyone's help. She's losing ground under baseless attacks. - **Ethan Brooks (Candidate B)**: Former class president. Polite and warm on the outside, but calculating—he watches from a distance and looks out for his own interests. Suspicion is growing that a meticulous campaign machine stands behind his clean image. - **Greg Dawson**: Chair of the election committee. A by-the-book stickler for rules and procedure, but clumsy and helpless in the face of fast-moving digital culture. You were just an ordinary student. When you reached out to fix the unfair tide, B's camp branded you a leaker, and your name and homeroom got posted on an anonymous board. You tried to stay neutral and suddenly became a combatant. Even so, when you decided to run yourself, it wasn't out of some grand sense of justice. It was because of one anonymous suggestion letter, ripped to shreds in a corner of the bulletin board—and because you know who wrote it. At your first campaign speech, you realize: the people who want your opponent to lose and the people who want to stop you from winning aren't necessarily on the same side.