Ballot

Ballot

Topic(s)	MUN, Speech and Debate, Politics
Active Years	2018 - Present
Advised	Yes
Advisor	Nicole De Pavia
Execs	President: Brandy Xie Director of Competitions: Emmanuel Roy Director of Events: Zachary Li Director of Logistics: Jayanth Pandit
Event(s)	TEDxYouth @ TAMS, SciMUN
Website	https://ballot.tams.club
Facebook	Link
Email	ballot.tams@gmail.com

Ballot (previously PAC-MUN and Speech and Debate) is a TAMS club dedicated to bringing Model UN, speech, debate, and political awareness to the TAMS community. We give students a stage to share their passions in TEDxtalks, connect science with politics at SciMUN, and work with UNT's Model International Organization (MIO) to organize the annual Model Arab League (MAL), and help students compete at competitions through our Speech and Debate teams. Our goal is to help students develop skills in logical thinking, public speaking, and civic discourse which will empower them to be informed and capable leaders of the future in any career.

Ballot 2019-2020 hosts a panel of students.

Events

TEDxYouth @ TAMS

TEDxYouth @ TAMS is a TEDxYouth event hosted at TAMS.

SciMUN

SciMUN is a yearly Model United Nations conference at TAMS.

Middle Ground

Ballot regularly hosts Middle Ground GAs, in which a contentious topic is debated. Participants take a stance on the issue, and attempt to seek middle ground with the opposing side (hence the name).

Political Fair

Political Fair is an event similar to Science Fair in which participants can give presentations on political issues.

Ballot Watermelon Eating Competition

During RO's 2022 Research Royale, Ballot hosted a watermelon eating competition similar to TAMS Hottest FACES and the TCS Hot Dog Eating Competition. The event consisted of two qualifying rounds, a final round, and an exec round.

Ballot Watermelon Eating Competition 2022

Result	Name
Champion	Madhav Thamaran
Finalist	Anantha Narayanan
Finalist	William Flinchbaugh
Finalist	Marco Ricci (RA)
Finalist	Anish Goel

Ballot vs RO Showdown 2022

Ballot	1 - 0	Research Organization
Emmanuel Roy		Arianna Fa
Jayanth Pandit		Shreya Amalapurapu
Brandy Xie		Shreya Nair
Zachary Li		Sophia Zhang

Students pose for a picture while at ILMUNC 2020.

Competitions

Central Texas MUN (CTMUN)

Fall 2022

TAMS attended CTMUN 2020 in-person at the University of Texas at Austin.

Fall 2020

The University of Texas at Austin hosted CTMUN 2020 virtually through November 6-8, 2020. The following TAMS students participated:

General Assembly Plenary

• Zhuoli Xie - France
• Amita Manjunath - Greece

UNESCO

• Saatvik Sunkavalli - Argentina (Outstanding Delegate)

The Bangladesh Awami League

• Anay Gupta - Kazi Nurruzaman
• Ted Kwee-Bintoro - William A. S. Ouderland (Outstanding Delegate)

Summer 2020

For the first time in its history, the University of Texas at Austin hosted its first virtual conference on July 21, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following TAMS students participated:

General Assembly

• Andrew Abraham - Bangladesh
• Joshua Joseph - Poland
• Sanjana Koratala - Republic of Korea
• Stephanie You - Russia
• Weikang (Patrick) Du - France
• Yifan Guo - Canada
• Zhuoli Xie - Mexico

Group of 20 (G20)

• Sriya Sadhu - Moon Jae-in

2020 Papal Enclave

• Yashvini Deva - Cardinal Angelo Scola
• Ted Kwee-Bintoro - Cardinal Péter Erdő (Outstanding Delegate)
  • Participated under Tompkins High School

Dallas Area MUN (DAMUN)

2021

DAMUN XI occurred virtually on January 23rd, 2021. Unfortunately, TAMS did not participate this year.

A group photo after DAMUN X.

2019

DAMUN X occurred on October 14th, 2019. The following TAMS students participated:

Human Rights Council

• Braiden Aaronson - Poland, HRC
• Saatvik Sunkavalli - (Outstanding Delegate)

World Health Organisation

• Daniel Li - WHO (Honorable Delegate)
• Abi Kumar - Nicaragua, WHO

Crisis

• Gavin Bardwell - Andrew Card

Security Council

• Aryan Agarwal - Poland, SC

Historical Security Council

• Tian Yuan - Poland, Historical SC

Arab League

• Moksh Nirvaan and Aarti Kotha - UAE
• Apsara Mitra and Jalini Balasubramaniam - Sudan

General Assembly

• Evan Carlisle - Poland
• Abhijeet Bendapudi - UAE
• Yashvini Deva - Nicaragua

2018

DAMUN X occurred on November 10, 2018.

WHO

• Ellie Rose Mattoon (Best Delegate)
• Isabella Raicu (Outstanding Delegate)

ECOSOC

• Shaurya Kumar (Best Delegate)

Ivy League Model United Nations Conference (ILMUNC)

2020

TAMS Ballot sent a delegation to ILMUNC 2020 from January 30th to February 2nd, 2020, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Junior State of America (JSA)

Fall State 2022

On November 19th-20th, 2022, a group of 18 TAMS students - 4 seniors and 14 juniors - attended Texas JSA Fall State in Houston, Texas. The group was the biggest TAMS team to compete by far, and won nine best speaker awards. The performance placed them in second place (46 points) on the state's leaderboard, behind San Marcos HS. Competitors included:

Spring State 2022

A small group of juniors attended Texas JSA Spring State in Houston, Texas. Emmanuel Roy won four best speaker awards through the Debate Dash.

North Texas High School Model Arab League (NTHSMAL)

2022

TAMS Ballot hosted NTHSMAL at New Tech HS @ Coppell in Fall 2022.

A group photo after NTIMAL 2019.

Committees

The cover page of volume 1 of the Ballot Buzz, published on April 19, 2020.

Ballot Buzz

Ballot publishes the Ballot Buzz, which is a weekly newsletter featuring student-contributed articles on politics.

Committee Heads	Years
Samhita Anipindi	2022-2023
Yousuf Khalid
Ailsa Kokoricha	2021-2022

Mock Trial

Mock Trial is a committee under Ballot that hopes to simulate real trials and courtroom situations. Member have the opportunity to travel to Mock Trial competitions and compete against other schools.

Committee Heads	Years
Lavanya Katta	2022-2023
Paarth Jamdagneya

Model United Nations (MUN)

Ballot has always had a long history of participating in MUN, but starting with the 2022-2023 academic year, MUN became a seperate committee under Ballot rather than part of the overall Ballot club. MUN participants roleplay as delegates from various countries and simulate the United Nations, with the hope of getting students to understand and educate themselves on world issues as well as gain leadership and communication skills.

Committee Heads	Years
Aneesh Mazumder	2022-2023
Manas Navale

Junior States of America (JSA)

JSA is an organization committed to fighting apathy and encouraging civil discourse among high schoolers, and the Ballot committee serves as the TAMS chapter. Over the course of the year, members will participate in engaging debates, eye-opening thought talks, and fun overnight state/national conventions!

Committee Heads	Years
Ananya Mukund	2022-2023
Brandy Xie (still is chapter president-for-life)
Dhiraj Bijinepally
Neha Nagarajan
Brandy Xie	2021-2022
Ted Kwee-Bintoro

Shout!

Shout! is a Ballot committee dedicated to fostering political activism and participation in civic duties at TAMS. This committee aids students who wish to exercise their political rights by registering them to vote and providing transportation to the polls during national and state-wide elections. We will also be covering debates and news during elections through watch parties and this page. Shout! was absorbed into Ballot starting with the 2022-2023 academic school year.

Committee Heads	Years
Peyton Barre	2021-2022
Temi Akinyoade	2020-2021
Mihir Khare

Speech & Debate

We are excited to be working under Ballot this year to make speech and debate at TAMS more convenient and successful than ever before. Throughout this year, we plan to compete at tournaments (which will mainly be online the first semester due to COVID) at the local, state, and national level. While participating in speech and debate, you will learn life-long skills, such as how to research, develop logical arguments on the spot, and deliver them effectively. Because Speech and Debate includes a variety of events—from oratory, where you present and 10 minute speech about a topic of your choosing, to Public Forum, where you debate against opponents with the help of a teammate—there is a definitely an event that you will enjoy competing in, so don’t be afraid to try it out!

Speech & Debate participates in IEs, PF, LD, and more!

Committee Heads	Years
Arham Kundi	2022-2023
Catherine Wang
Jay Datla
Bhavik Tadigotla	2021-2022
Anvitha Reddy
Jennifer Yu	2020-2021
Saatvik Sunkavalli
Aarti Kotha
Sai Sarnala

Execs

2022-2023

President: Brandy Xie

Director of Competitions: Emmanuel Roy

Director of Events: Zachary Li

Director of Logistics: Jayanth Pandit

2021-2022

President: Ted Kwee-Bintoro

Director of Competitions: Audrey Hopkin

Director of Events: Daphne Sahaya

Director of Logistics: Yifan Guo

Director of Outreach: Anay Gupta

2020-2021

President: Yashvini Deva

Director of Competitions: Daniel Li

Director of Events: Sriya Sadhu

Director of Logistics: Jalini Balasubramaniam

Director of Outreach: Abi Kumar

2019-2020

Secretary General: Ellie Rose Mattoon

Speech and Debate Captain: Mayur Pabba

Director of Events: Evan Carlisle

Director of Outreach: Tara Roshan

Director of Logistics: Abhijeet Bendapudi

Advisor: Chance Townsend

2018-2019

President: Cari Reinert

Competitions Coordinator: Tejas Saboo

Education Coordinator: David Yue

Speech and Debate Coordinators: Melanie Che and David Yue

Treasurer: Grace Hu

See also

• Clubs