This year’s voter turnout for the Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College elections was lower than hoped for.
The Broadside
Lauren Hamlin
There were 340 counted votes; 361 students attempted voting. One was not counted due to voting for all four candidates and the other 20 did not complete the voting process.
In last year’s election there were 13 election candidates and voter turnout was higher. Gordon Price, director of Student Life, was disappointed with this year’s numbers.
“We were hoping for more voters, we had a lot more last year…about 890 votes,” said Price, “We did everything the same as last year.”
Even though there were disappointments, Price had a thought as to why the turnout was lower than last year. ASCOCC council of 2010-11 were publicized frequently and drew attention to the way student fees were spent. Compared to last year, Price said this year’s council was more “mellow” and therefore, drew less student attention.
Kelly Huskey, ASCOCC branch campus coordinator and recently re-elected for ASCOCC council had similar thoughts.
“Last year there was a lot of controversy…and our council of 2011-12 did not [create controversy] so that might explain why voter turnout wasn’t high,” said Huskey. “Students may have felt more satisfied with our job, so there wasn’t a need for change.”
Although participation wasn’t high as compared to last year, there were still enough candidates and applicants to fill the ASCOCC council for 2012-13.
In addition to the four students who ran in the student government elections, there were six who applied for the three appointed council positions. Those who applied for the appointed officer positions have gone through an interview process. The official and complete officer slate will be confirmed by the COCC Board of Directors on June 13.
For any questions regarding the voting process or student life, contact Gordon Price at gprice@cocc.edu
(Contact: lhamlin@cocc.edu)
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ASCOCC, what’s that? No one voted because the council didn’t do anything significant or original this year. The student government was an extension of student life’s activities. I don’t think students were more or less satisfied with the job done. Students didn’t vote because they don’t know what ASCOCC is or does this year. There was hardly any advertising of events or by the time anything was done, it was at the last minute. Every event just had the same people attending like it was their own little club. Voter turnout is a reflection of the involvement on campus that student government has with students. What did student government do to advertise the elections? I didn’t see any flyers, no facebook posts, tables around campus, nothing. If no one knows about elections it is much easier for the yes-men like Huskey to get their jobs back. There is always next year for a few of them to try again to connect with the ten thousand students. Student government is a waste of money. There are more leadership opportunities on campus to really make a difference than red-tape, playing favors with clubs for money, sitting around in an office and going on trips “on be-half” of the student body.
You are right on the money Mike. If ASCOCC was more involved and I actually knew what they were doing maybe I would go vote.
Last year we had emails sent to us to remember to vote and a link through Bb. This year I heard nothing about it, saw no flyers or reminders anywhere. Maybe a bit more advertising would help turnout.
This year’s ASCOCC election was advertised nearly exactly as last year’s election. There were e-mail reminders sent out several times and postings on campus and window paintings on Modoc and the Campus Center.It was again held through the Blackboard process.
For various reasons ASCOCC was definitely more on the minds of students last year in comparison to this year. However, historically, last year’s turnout and the number of candidates was out of the ordinary. This year’s turnout, reflect the norm on this campus.
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