With highly aggressive
campaigns by all three tickets, voter turnout this year was near the highest
that it's been in a decade. Fifteen thousand more students submitted votes
than last year — a respectable jump that accounted for over 12 percent
of the student body. Its usual turnout is about eight percent.
Jim Vaca and Patrick
Mondi received over half of the votes, easily winning the election. The
accusations against the candidates who campaigned in the residence halls
either early or without permits were proven worthless.
The highest percentage
of voter turnout came from the residence halls — 20 percent of the
men and 21 percent of the women from the halls submitted votes.
Although this upward
trend is a positive sign that students are feeling more involved with
Purdue's governing body, the negative correlation with this year's election
may find next year's voter turnout to be significantly lower — a
black eye that PSG cannot afford to keep.
The fact that such
a relatively large number of students involved themselves with the elections
this year, especially from the residence halls, is commendable. The candidates
who pushed themselves to influence voter turnout took the first step toward
making the student body feel involved in the University governing system.
This shows that the
apathetic shell that has surrounded PSG over the past few years can be
cracked, but student involvement will only be determined by the levels
of energy that the candidates put into their own campaigns.
Although the zeal
that each of the tickets had during this year's campaigns was met with
a torrent of accusations and disputes, there exists no adequate reason
why candidates of the future can and should not continue to push the importance
of the elections. After all, every new vote for them is also another overall
vote for PSG.
A good method for
provoking more interest in PSG and the elections in future years is to
increase the duration in which the candidates may campaign. Logically,
the longer they are out there, the better the turnout will be.
