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September 26, 2006
Lower turnout and little competition define first-year elections
First-year students voted Sept. 18 for their four HUSC representatives.
After the ballots were totaled, Jenna Steffen, Brian Marbury, Adam Hanson, and Michael Schuster were elected to represent the first-year class.
Seven candidates applied for the four positions.
“I’m tempted to go knock on doors,” said Mada Tatuges, a sophomore representative. The few HUSC representatives running the election booth were working on getting as many first-year students to vote as possible. More first-years voting means more people connecting themselves to HUSC, and being more involved with the university’s student congress. “If nothing else, it’s good from a democracy standpoint,” said junior representative Paul Sawyer.
Many students, including HUSC members, were surprised by the lack of publicity displayed by the candidates this year. Sawyer said, “I’m amazed at how little campaigning there was compared to other years.” Newly elected Political Affairs Committee (PAC) chair Jeana Blomme was also confused about the lack of posters posted by the candidates.
Tatuges said she believes the scarcity of campaign flyers may have been caused by poor communications between first-years and the HUSC Executive Board. With a newly formed Executive Board, much attention was given to ensuring the older representatives, and everyone else, was aware of what was going on. This may have resulted in less communication with prospective first-years. “It’s nobody’s fault,” Tatuges said.
A group of first-year students, after voting, expressed feelings of being unaware about what HUSC really is, as well as who their candidates really are. “We haven’t been here long enough to really know the people,” said first-year Alli Baker. Baker added that she would like to know more about what HUSC does, so she and her classmates could be more informed voters. Nathan Anderson, another first-year student, said that there was confusion as to when and where the elections were even being held.
There was minimal competition witnessed between candidates.
Posted by dwright at September 26, 2006 12:27 AM
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