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Voter turnout falls flat
By Matthew Quane
mquane@mscd.edu

What is with Metro’s Student Government Assembly elections and its paltry 2 percent voter turnouts?

Year after year, whether it is a special election or not, the SGA and its revolving door of an election commission cannot seem to drum up more than 400 to 600 voters.

Actually, the revolving-door metaphor is insufficient; a carousel would be a more appropriate comparison to this sometimes annual and often biannual circus act.

The election commission and its humble commissioners seem to consistently be working under a ridiculous time crunch. And why? Because election matters are put on the back burner of the SGA priority list, resulting in a last-minute scramble with a voting window that mirrors finals week.

So here is my advice for the SGA in order to increase voter turnout.

SGA, please begin your preparations for the spring election now. Do everything in your power to not scare off or fire Jason Doyle as the chair of the election commission.

Allow Doyle to immediately set an election schedule that does not coincide with finals so that you have a chance to grab the attention of students before they begin to worry about whether or not they are going to pass a class.

It should be obvious by now that the tactics employed to get out the vote are insufficient. Sending out e-mails, posting on message boards, hanging flyers and banners around campus and a lone polling booth are getting the job done – but lacking a personal touch.

Try getting out on campus, meeting face-to-face with students and personally reminding them to vote. The soiree in the physical education building was a nice start – try having another before the election.

Whatever you do, the focus should be on increasing student awareness. Is a five percent voter turnout too much to ask?