2008 Woodie Awards
Record turnout for freshman elections
Issue date: 10/9/08
A record number of votes were cast in this year's freshman Student Government Association (SGA) elections and a record number of candidates ran for office.
There were 732 votes cast, constituting nearly three quarters of the freshman class. Twenty-four freshmen ran for office, as opposed to last year's 12 candidates.
Recent changes in the SGA constitution as well as increased publicity helped to increase candidate participation as well as voter turnout, according to Alieu Kanu, chair of the Committee on Student Elections.
The SGA decided last spring to eliminate the positions of Class Vice President, Class Secretary and specific roles for senators, leaving students with the option of running for either Class President or one of the six indistinct senate positions.
This year, Ben McGuiggen was elected president. The six senators of the class of 2012 are Ardi Mendoza, PK Smith, Nikki Jiam, Mark Dirzulaitis, Elizabeth Duval and Stephanie Suser.
According to Kanu, the elimination of specific positions made the process more competitive, which sparked more active campaigning.
"A lot of people ran who wouldn't have if they had been forced into a position like Secretary, for instance, because they just had to declare their interest in SGA," Kanu said.
Kanu said that he created a Facebook group for the purpose of this election, which encouraged participation in the elections and provided a regulated forum for campaigning.
"I used the Facebook group to help promote the elections, and Facebook has a widespread impact that you can't achieve just with word of mouth."
As the voting period approached, Kanu sent messages to all the members of the Facebook group, reminding them to vote.
Candidates were only allowed to use the Facebook group to advertise, which helped streamline the online campaign process.
Kanu said he believes that these changes helped freshmen to understand and follow the rules, which accounts for why zero candidates were disqualified during the election period.
There were 732 votes cast, constituting nearly three quarters of the freshman class. Twenty-four freshmen ran for office, as opposed to last year's 12 candidates.
Recent changes in the SGA constitution as well as increased publicity helped to increase candidate participation as well as voter turnout, according to Alieu Kanu, chair of the Committee on Student Elections.
The SGA decided last spring to eliminate the positions of Class Vice President, Class Secretary and specific roles for senators, leaving students with the option of running for either Class President or one of the six indistinct senate positions.
This year, Ben McGuiggen was elected president. The six senators of the class of 2012 are Ardi Mendoza, PK Smith, Nikki Jiam, Mark Dirzulaitis, Elizabeth Duval and Stephanie Suser.
According to Kanu, the elimination of specific positions made the process more competitive, which sparked more active campaigning.
"A lot of people ran who wouldn't have if they had been forced into a position like Secretary, for instance, because they just had to declare their interest in SGA," Kanu said.
Kanu said that he created a Facebook group for the purpose of this election, which encouraged participation in the elections and provided a regulated forum for campaigning.
"I used the Facebook group to help promote the elections, and Facebook has a widespread impact that you can't achieve just with word of mouth."
As the voting period approached, Kanu sent messages to all the members of the Facebook group, reminding them to vote.
Candidates were only allowed to use the Facebook group to advertise, which helped streamline the online campaign process.
Kanu said he believes that these changes helped freshmen to understand and follow the rules, which accounts for why zero candidates were disqualified during the election period.
Be the first to comment on this story