Last week I attended the Undergraduate Student Government presidential debate between the runoff candidates Sophie O'Keefe-Zelman and Zach Gingg. As a staff member of campus station the Blaze 1260 AM, which sponsored and organized the event, I was required to attend and help out with the proceedings. The debate was held at one of the large lecture halls in the Coor building, and as I arrived there a little bit late after getting out of one of my classes, I noticed something peculiar about the room - it was almost empty.
Now, apathy in any type of electoral process is hardly something new, especially on a college campus. However, I always thought part of the problem was that people just didn't have enough access to the candidates, or the ability to really know where they stand on the issues, aside from whatever you can learn from a campaign sign or short article in the newspaper. Here was a golden opportunity for any available student at ASU to watch both tickets in action, fielding questions and pushing their platforms. Aside from my colleagues from the station, there seemed to be a maximum of five "citizens" from the ASU populace in attendance.
I'm willing to admit that we didn't have enough time to publicize the event as widely as we would have hoped, but there weren't even people who were walking by on their way out of class, stopping in for a second for curiosity's sake. Sure, we all have busy schedules and tight constraints on time, but the implication is still clear: no one really cares.
So while the percentage of students who vote in student government elections is assuredly unfavorable, the actual numbers aren't exactly small. In the primary election this year, there were 2,426 ballots cast for president and vice president. Surely out of those 2,426 people who actually managed to bother enduring the taxing process of clicking a mouse a few times, some must have been interested enough to actually see the runoff candidates interact. Yet where were these people during the debate?
The only conclusion that I can reach from the lack of available information about the candidates in student elections, and the lack of interest of students in finding information about candidates, is that more than any other type of election, these ones are voted on completely by blind faith. Without taking anything away from either of the candidates or the merits of their campaigns, I am sure that many of the students who voted for them simply did so because they had some of the largest and most visible signs on campus.
Hardly a day - no, an hour - has gone by the last month and a half or so that I haven't seen Zach and Ryan's smiling faces somewhere on campus, benevolently calling to me like a beacon in the night. The text of the campaign promises on O'Keefe-Zelman's signs have been permanently entrenched into my memory. During the debate, Ryan Owens even admitted that the biggest way they reached voters during the campaign was by giving out free candy.
The most salient example of elections simply depending on image, or worse, random chance, came in the College of Public Programs Senate. One of my close associates decided to run for the office, but took the unorthodox approach of not campaigning at all and not establishing a platform.
I was aghast at the cavalier way he approached the election, and bet him that he wouldn't get more than 10 votes with such a lackadaisical approach.
Strangely though, he seemed confident the whole way through, especially once voting started, saying he would "leave it to chance" and all would fall into place.
As luck would have it, his name was randomly placed first among the candidates on the online ballot on ASU Interactive. I didn't think that would guarantee him anything, having more faith in our populace than thinking they would just pick whatever name would come first, without even contemplating where the person they were voting for might stand on the issues, thus making a mockery out of democracy.
Turns out I was the one wrong about the process. Not only did he get more than 10 votes, he got 156 votes and ended up winning one of the Senate seats.
Albert Ching is a journalism junior. Reach him at albertxii@hotmail.com.
