Student Body Officer (SBO) elections were held this week, and newly elected Student Body President Dave Jensen and the rest of his “Brave for You” ticket ran unopposed for their positions. This marks the first time in recent history that a lone ticket has been represented in SBO elections.
The lack of options made an obvious negative impact on student voter turnout. An underwhelming 536 students voted this year, a drastic drop from the 1,694 students who cast their votes in the 2016 SBO elections, when at least two students ran for each position.
Not only was there a lack of candidate options this year, but Senate was unprepared to face the challenges that came with an earlier election. According to Elections Board Chairperson Jenna Dellaria, with the process being moved up two weeks, “people might not have been aware” of the SBO election.
“I know a lot of people have been asking, ‘When are candidacy forms due,’ or, ‘What’s the process?’” Dellaria said in a March 24 Scout article.
It is doubtful anyone outside of Senate — or who hadn’t been personally approached by “Brave for You” ticket members — knew about the election or had enough time to prepare for a candidacy in 2017.
These deterrents encouraged mockery amongst some of the students who came out to vote, as nearly one third of the write-in votes were comical and unrealistic submissions, such as Pikachu, Nicholas Cage and Miles the Rock Johnson.
While the humor resulting from these write-ins leaves us chuckling at the creativity of some voters, it is disheartening to see an absence of student leaders and a lack of seriousness from the student body.
These immature and irresponsible decisions have impacts on the entire student body. This is why the administrators are apprehensive to pass resolutions that rely on the responsibility of anonymous students. In the case of the Preferred Name Resolution last year, students would have been able to write in the name they wished to be called – but in the fear of receiving less than serious submissions like this year’s elections write-ins, the resolution did not pass University Senate.
Additionally, last year’s election announcement day had a large crowd, but there was less than a handful of spectators in the Michel Student Center atrium to see the results and support the newly elected board Wednesday.
This student apathy strips us of the right to complain when we feel like our voices aren’t being heard and our opinions aren’t being considered.
In future elections, voter turnout should be 100 percent.
The people elected are supposed to represent the student body, but how can they accurately do this when so few students participate properly?
