Freshman class council elections saw a much lower voter turnout this year than in the past, as 350 students voted compared to 635 last year and 668 two years ago.
Student Union President Paul Moinester attributes the decrease in voting to fewer candidates running for each position. He says larger candidate pools draw larger crowds because freshmen vote for their friends and floormates.
“Voter turnout is a product of how competitive the races are, especially freshman year,” he said.
This year, two candidates ran for each position whereas up to six had run in the past. Thus, the lower numbers are not necessarily related to apathy, according to Moinester.
“It’s not anything different,” he said. “Sometimes you just have people that may be more excited to run. The turnout is certainly lower.”
Newly elected class council president Jeannette Wong thinks other issues affected voting as well. She says not enough students knew about the elections or the opportunities available to them.
“Maybe we didn’t go around enough,” she said. “The difficulty is what we can do as a class council.”
She and other candidates campaigned around all the dorms on the South 40, created a Facebook group dedicated to elections, flyered, sent mass e-mails, chalked the sidewalks and made T-shirts.
But for many students, the election remained low key.
“I knew about it only because a candidate spoke to me about his platform,” said freshman Yosef Gillers. “I wasn’t well-educated or well-informed enough to vote. I don’t vote for someone based on an ad campaign.”
For freshmen, this is only part of the issue.
“We’re freshmen,” said Gillers. “We just got here and we don’t even know what [the class council] does. It’s partly the school’s and candidates’ fault.”
Freshman Caitlin Astrue did vote, although mainly to support her floormate D.D. Alexander for secretary.
“A lot of people didn’t know about it,” said Astrue. “And the date sort of snuck up on people.”
In some aspects, she says the election reached the point of confusion.
“No one was able to explain how it worked,” she said. “People were also confused about whether you had to vote for groups or individuals.”
She and Gillers both agree that students need a better basic introduction of the process before elections are held.
“There was a lack of information about the positions and who was running,” said Astrue. “We need a better understanding of what the positions are and what they can do. The candidates need to do a better job. It goes hand in hand.”