For politicians in 2016, it's more important than ever to have a personal brand. That's why, in addition to schmoozing in person, candidates in the AMS elections are currently trying to market themselves using personal websites. Some of them opt for a clean WordPress or Squarespace design — others attempt to code one themselves, usually with disastrous results. Either way, some do it better than others. Let's take a look at the best and the worst.

Note: we've only included candidates with websites — not just Facebook pages.

President

Ava Nasiri: First of all, get that mailing list nonsense out of my face. Secondly, this is a pretty great campaign site once you click away from the mailing list nonsense. Everything you could want to know about Ava and more is clearly laid out (with maybe a bit too much text). A few too many animations for my taste, but they fit the vibe. 8/10

Jenna Omassi: Solid WordPress template. Honestly, this is probably the best route you could go as a candidate without a ton of coding experience who doesn't want to spend $8/month on Squarespace. It's clean, easy to navigate and lays out everything you need to know without getting in your face about it. 8.5/10.

Read more: Debate recap: President

VP Academic and University Affairs

Andrew Liang: It's clear, concise and mostly on one page. His platform is attached as a separate PDF file for some reason and his “About” section URL is “new-page,” but those are hardly major issues. 

Note: those issues have since been resolved, so we'll bump him up to an 8.5/10.

Read more: Debate recap: VP Academic and University Affairs

VP Admin

Chris Scott: You're a handsome guy, Chris — you can take a photo that doesn't look like someone carved you out of plastic. His platform is laid out in an easy-to-find way, but the website is pretty late-2000s in terms of design. Also, he lists his interests as “Food and using the Oxford Comma.” All you had to do was add one more item to the list and you could've used an Oxford comma. Come on, Chris. 6/10.

Alan Ehrenholz: It's a simple, straightforward Wordpress design, but it lacks all the polish of Jenna's. The blue isn't helping. #Alan4Admin probably wins Most Palatable Hashtag, though. 5/10.

Read more: Debate recap: VP Admin

VP Finance

Louis Retief: This is a nice-ass site. It's almost a shame that it's wasted on the only position running unopposed. The layout makes sense, the font is clean and the information is well-presented. The splash page is a little unnecessary and the site could use better photos, but this is still a winner. 9/10.

Read more: Debate recap: VP Finance

Board of Governors

Veronica Knott: Nice as hell. It's another free WordPress template and it's another demonstration of how clean they can look when utilized properly. 9/10.

Reda El Maazi: Oh, Jesus fuck. Oh, god, no. Okay, it's clear that this is a comp sci 100 project that he coded and promptly forgot about, but holy shit. Reda's personal website is almost as well put-together as his debate performance. This is the kind of thing that should absolutely not come up when someone Googles your name. I feel like I'm looking at a 1998 fan site all about the different types of metamorphic rocks. Get this thing off the internet, Reda. 0/10.

If you want to see what he actually made for the election, here's his mediocre Facebook page.

Read more: Debate recap: BoG

Senate

Nick Dawson: This is a pretty “meh” site overall until WHOA, DADDY. THOSE ARE SOME ANIMATED SOCIAL MEDIA BUTTONS. 3/10.

Daniel Lam: Ah, Wix. How long it's been. 2/10.

Zahara Baugh: Yikes. The Rosie poster is a little heavy-handed and it doesn't get better from there. A ton of white space and a horrible logo round out this mess. 2/10.

Khaled Nasra: It's straightforward and minimal, but man, the Weebly bottom banner and favicon are a throwback. Depending on how you read the banner image, his “Platform & Goals” page is hilariously mournful. 5/10.

Dario Garousian gets an honourable mention for being the only candidate to throw the voting link under “Tickets Available” on Facebook.

Read more: Debate recap: Senate

Editor's note: I didn't bother to rank the mobile versions because this isn't real news and I'm tired.

Share this article copied!