You do not need to follow any social media or watch for news updates to know when the homecoming election is taking place on the Mississippi State University campus. You know it is the day of the homecoming election when sticker-wearing students across campus are all suddenly interested in giving you free cookies or are keen to know how your day is going. Last Tuesday was the third time in my life that I was a part of such tradition as an MSU student. Similar to many other new events for me as an international student, I have not been able to stop thinking about the purpose—as well as the upsides, and downsides—of this interesting event. I believe the most valuable aspect of the homecoming election is the fact that students are given a voice to select their own student representatives. The whole process can be seen as good practice for being citizens voting in a democracy. While I was not able to find any reports from MSU about the rate of students’ participation in the election, I have observed that not every student is interested in having any role in the homecoming election process—many do not even vote. Even among those I know who did actually vote, many stated they would not have voted if they were not friends with one of the a candidates. They only voted in order to support their real friends. One reason many of my friends were against voting was the change in the behavior of so many students on the day of the election. I totally agree that it is very easy to label the sudden surge of niceness on campus as fake and insincere. The blatancy of these efforts to score votes make it impossible for many students, myself included, to accept them with sincerity. Unfortunately, this practice is not just burdensome for the targets students, it is even more potentially harmful for the students campaigning. People may judge them as individuals based on their overly friendly behavior on election day. While I will always applaud people who can treat everyone like their friends and enjoy even simple human interactions, the importance of intention behind good deeds should not be forgotten. I argue that an act of kindness with less than proper intention behind it can indeed degrade someone’s credibility the next time they are nice. Another concern I have with the election is the candidates themselves. I am certain everyone has at least once heard that homecoming court election is a popularity contest, which can be harmful to a candidate’s self esteem and may also cause them to be disingenuine. It is indeed hard to deny a huge part of democratic elections in general is making efforts to play to the gallery. At the end of the day, the voters are going to vote for the candidate they have perceived as having the better qualities for the position, whether they actually do or not. Looking at the regulations in place for the homecoming elections, one easily can see that I am not the first person who has raised these concerns. For example, there is a process of interview by a selection committee before a candidate can accept a nomination for Mr. or Miss MSU. This is clearly an effort to prevent a winner from being chosen that does not qualify to represent MSU. To be clear, in no way am I suggesting that the tradition of homecoming court is not of significant value. On the contrary, I believe long lasting traditions like homecoming court are too valuable not to be critiqued, updated and reformed based on our new understandings of the world. This way, these traditions can last. For instance, it was very heart-warming to see that minority groups in this year’s election have been successful. This shows unity on our campus, despite the nation’s ongoing struggles. Shawanda Brooks was the first black woman to be named MSU’s Homecoming Queen in 15 years. In addition, Feifei Zeng, an international student, managed to be among the representative students as a Senior Maid.