Mythbuster: Whose Homecoming vote really counts? 
by Mindy McCorkle
September 21 , 2011
Our first mission was to bust, or confirm, the myth: “Boys’ sports always get more than girls’ sports.” After repeatedly hearing complaints about “boys always getting more,” we finally decided to take matters into our own hands and discover more information about the school district’s sports budgets. After some research, we obtained the proposed sports’ budget for the 2011-2012 school year.
It’s that time of year again. While some students look forward to Friday-night football games, other students (mostly the girls) look forward to something a little different—Homecoming. At the beginning of every school year, seniors nominate six girls from their class to represent the class as part of the Homecoming Court and to “run” for the title of Homecoming Queen.
Over the course of a couple of weeks, the girls write speeches to present at an assembly, gather pictures to put into a slideshow and prepare for the Homecoming Parade, which takes place in town before the football game. Homecoming, however, brings quite a few rumors along with it.
The rumors, well, we’ve all heard them: “Sophomores’ votes don’t count; they’re just the tiebreakers.” “The drum major always wins.” And the newest rumor: “Freshmen are the back-up tiebreakers.” This last rumor is somewhat problematic and even illogical since freshmen don’t even vote for Homecoming Queen.
Year after year, a lot of students tend to believe these rumors. Well, here’s the truth. Sophomores’ votes count. All the votes from every grade go into the same box. The votes aren’t separated or coded, so there’s no way to tell whose vote is whose.
There is also no way to predict that a certain person will win. The candidates change every year and so do the results. Since Leechburg is a small school and the same students, especially senior girls on the Homecoming Court are in so many activities, the likelihood of a band member or a cheerleader or any other club or activity member becoming the Homecoming Queen is probable.
And unless every single freshman is on call to come in to vote in case of a tie, it is also absolutely untrue that freshmen votes are back-up tiebreakers since there is no tiebreaker provision in the first place.
It’s safe to say that this myth has been BUSTED.
The Homecoming assembly will take place on Sept. 23 at 9 a.m. The parade will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the same day, followed by the football game where the Homecoming Queen will be crowned at halftime.
Have a myth you want busted? Contact the LBG Mythbusters at trottyveck2010@gmail.com
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