Editor’s note: Allegheny Student Government announced late last night that Smith has officially been removed from the 2023-24 presidential race, citing a violation of Article 1, Section 6 of the ASG election bylaws. As a number of other campaigns have previously and may in the future reference Smith’s campaign, this profile will not be removed. Article 1, Section 6 explains that “Candidates are upheld to a certain standard of behaviors while campaigning. If a candidate is found to violate these, certain actions and punishments may be taken against them.” The bylaw notes that behaviors which constitute action include but are not limited to bribery, negative campaigning against other candidates or coercion. ASG has not provided a formal explanation on what prompted the removal.

Reece Smith, ’24, is running on a solo ticket for President of Allegheny Student Government. Smith intentionally made the choice to run alone to hopefully include a broader array of student voices. His platform stipulates that once he is elected, he will choose a vice president who brings different perspectives than him.

“The reason I wanted to not have a running mate was because I want to better represent the student body, and I feel the best way to do that is to have the VP be someone that I wouldn’t necessarily want to run with,” Smith said.

The main goal of Smith’s campaign is election reform. Specifically, allowing more time to debate ideas among all candidates. The solution for voting in future elections, in Smith’s view, is to operate under a ranked-choice voting system, wherein each candidate runs for the entire election rather than narrowing the race down to two tickets after the primary.

“Basically, we’re going to allow all the candidates to run for the entire time of the election,” Smith said. “Voters aren’t going to feel the need to strategically place their votes.”

Smith is an ASG outsider, but feels he has the support within ASG to achieve the goals set out by his campaign. 

“I’m definitely persuading members of ASG to do this, and I’m getting popular broad public support for it, I’m getting people to talk about it,” he said. “I think even if I lose, there’s a really good chance reform is going to be coming up.”

More than anything, Smith hopes to be realistic about what could get done under his presidency. 

“I don’t think I’m gonna be successful in convincing the administration to be quite honest with you, but I don’t think anyone else is either,” Smith said. “And I will say that when it comes to the ideas that I’m talking about, the election reform, I have been pretty successful at convincing ASG members.”