First Year Class Council elections, held Sept. 19, recorded their highest-ever voter turnout numbers this year, with 56 percent of the total freshman class voting.

The high turnout represents an improvement from last year’s 50 percent rate and continues a trend in recent years of increasing participation in Student Union elections.

SU President and junior Sydney Robinson attributed this voter increase to a new approach to elections, led by freshman Steven Kish, SU’s election commissioner. According to Robinson, Kish revamped the approach of former election commissioners, providing better communication and resources to both voters and candidates.

“The voter turnout is all on [Kish]. He came in with ideas of how he wanted to improve the election cycle, communication with candidates—and executed it flawlessly,” Robinson said.

In total, 1,004 students participated in the election, with 998 of them voting for president, 910 voting for vice president of finance, 903 voting for vice president of administration, 895 voting for vice president of programming and 888 voting for vice president of public relations.

Kish, who was appointed to his post as election commissioner only a few weeks ago, attributes the increase in turnout in part to a new communications strategy with both candidates and voters.

“I sent an email at about 10 or 11 p.m. the night before elections so people could anticipate [the election]. On election day, [I sent an email] around 4 or 5 p.m. when people were ending class and could look at their emails again,” Kish said. “I think sustaining this kind of voter turnout will perpetuate itself. If we are having higher turnouts based on communication strategies, then people are going to be more interested in the next election.”

Freshman Jacob Kramer explained that, without Kish’s information about the election, he wouldn’t have known how or when to vote for his classmates.

“Emailing the link [for the election poll] helped people to vote because it let them know that an election was happening and gave them an easy way to participate in it,” Kramer said.

In addition to the communication efforts, both Robinson and Kish attribute the increase in voter participation to the candidates themselves.

“We had a lot of candidates that pushed to go that extra mile campaigning. The fleshed-out platforms of why [candidates] were running welcomed voters into the process and got them excited about voting. If you’ve got driven people running for these elections, then I think that sets the tone for the first-year class,” Robinson said.

“The candidates were really pushing each other in a good way. I think a lot of that increased engagement actually came from the candidates. On top of that, I think we have a really engaged and informed first-year class,” Kish said.

Kish also hopes that his new initiative, the election rules focus committee, which consists of an Oct. 1 open public forum where the campus community can express their opinions, will ensure that voters have a say in how their representatives are elected.

Kish spoke to the importance of student’s feelings being represented within their class.

“I think we really tried to stick to our message of ‘these people will be representing your interests.’ It ties into this idea that we should be engaged and informed members of our community. I think it’s really important that students feel like they have a voice, and moreover, they really do have a voice,” Kish said.

Robinson expressed excitement about the freshman class’ willingness to actively engage in the election.

“It’s important for the students of the first-year class to say what kind of change they want to see happen and who they want to lead their class. I think the fact that we are increasing voter turnout means that we have more say in who is representing [students],” Robinson said. “The more say we can get in those decisions, the better we are in being able to represent [students].”