Election draws lowest turnout since 2002

Not even a final day of campaigning that featured all three student body presidential candidates stumping in the South Park Blocks and a Student Fee Committee chair candidate displaying her piano-playing talents could save the total election turnout figure.

When the total turnout for the 2009 ASPSU Elections was released Monday evening, it was revealed that 1,177 students voted over the past week. At 4.5 percent of the student body, that is the lowest percentage of voters for any year from 1999–2009.

“We were thinking it was likely going to be one of the lowest turnouts, if not the lowest,” said ASPSU Vice President Kyle Cady, who estimated that 3.7 percent of the student body would vote. “I saw it coming because of the lack of presence in the Park Blocks leading up to the election.”

Cady cited the low turnout on the lack of campaigning, how late in the process candidates declared and the tactics they employed, specifically mentioning that grassroots efforts to get out the vote were scarce.

Heading into the fifth and final day that the polls were open, there was fear that this year’s election might have the lowest number of student votes ever. There were whispers among candidates, ASPSU executive staff members and concerned students that around only 950 students voted.

“I heard some things around campus, but nothing confirmed,” said Spencer Potter, ASPSU communications director. “I heard it was somewhere around 900.”

Potter spent the majority of Monday at a polling station in the middle of the South Park Blocks encouraging students to vote. He said the efforts were mainly well received and Monday netted 72 more votes, bringing the total for the four-day polling station to about 250 voters.

While Potter was content with the final turnout, he mentioned that there might have been some reasons that the percentage of students who voted was lower than in recent years.

“I think we did a good job promoting it despite the E-board,” Potter said. “We didn’t have the buildup heading into election week that we are used to.”

Potter specifically cited scheduling issues with candidate debates as one of the issues the ASPSU Elections Board experienced during the final weeks before polls opened. Another issue occurred last Monday when the first day of elections was canceled, wiping clean 93 votes, after the ballot was deemed incomplete.

The 1,177 votes cast is the fourth lowest turnout since 1999, with only the number of voters in 2000, 2001 and 2002 being lower.