A student election is absolutely worthless. This is not like stealing money from a convenience store — that has value - it’s more like taking home a paperclip from your office once. I see absolutely no reason that someone taking an office supply item home should be treated differently.

To kids in school, the election is not worthless. Even when I was in HS that wasn't the case, and the article mentions that with college admissions so competitive now, every edge -- including being elected to a student government -- is important.

Even if it's not actually important, it's the perception of importance to the student that matters. The idea that "it's ok to commit fraud if I think it's something important" is definitely one we don't want becoming widespread.

So what do you do with badly behaving kids? Whip them with a belt or show them the right path? If the kid's rotten, he's rotten. But more than likely he's not truly a bad person and can redeem himself.