SGA election voter turnout decrease

Despite being placed amidst cotton candy and carnival games, the computers used for this year's SGA election saw few votes and left a candidate for Senator off the ballot.

426 people voted for two President/Vice President groups at this year's election, 639 less than the 1065 votes in the 2009-2010 election for four President/Vice President groups.

President-elect Kristina Achey said in response to the turn out, "People need to be aware that voting is really easy. If you get to class early and someone has a computer, it will take you two seconds to vote."

 Achey said that next year, she and Vice President-elect Samantha Carty plan to increase student awareness of SGA, including working with the SGA's Public Relations committee to advertise and remind students to check their webmail around election time.

Student David Smith, who voted last year, said he did so because he "was kind of forced into it on my way to class. This year, I didn't really care to." Smith added that he felt that he did not know enough about the candidates beforehand, and when asked how he felt about election results, replied that he was unaware of who won.

"I voted because I wanted to," said student Perri Rothweiler. "I do feel that I might not have if it hadn't been in a convenient location. Voting is important for our school and I think more needs to be done to make sure that people are aware of this."

In addition to having an overwhelming fall in voting rates, a mishap occurred  in the system causing a Senator-elect to be left off the ballot. Kolby Stallings signed up to run uncontested for Senator of College of Education and wasn't put on the ballot. The Election Commission puts together ballots for elections. Several Election Commission officers were unsure about the details of the situation, as of print.

"I turned in all of the necessary paperwork on time and I attended the mandatory meeting on the day the paperwork was due," Stallings wrote in an e-mail to the Election Committee after discovering his name was nowhere to be found. "I did everything on my part to ensure that I would be put on the ballot." Stallings is appealing the error-induced result.

Stallings said later in an interview that he will appear on the special election ballot on May 10th with two referendums. "Even though the [judicial board] made a mistake, they are taking responsibility and getting it done." Stalling needs only one vote to be elected.