Election apathy plagues student government

Jeff Moses

As the Associated Students of Mesa Community College prepare for their yearly executive board election “apathetic,” seems to be the word that best defines the attitude most MCC students are taking.

“The problem is students are car to classroom” said ASMCC President Andrew Kuhn, “I mean the majority of people here, you know, really don’t care. They’re not here to be a part of the school. I mean there is a percentage of people that would like to get involved and do get involved. But the other percentage of people just don’t care,” he said.

In 2010 540 students voted in the ASMCC election, in 2011 that number dropped to 304, the number of students who voted in 2012 could not be acquired due to change in ASMCC advisers but Kuhn’s estimate was “only 100 or 200.”

“That’s just not enough votes” said MCC student Damien James

Even petitioners on campus are bringing in bigger numbers than the ASMCC elections.

“In the day we can get about 600 signatures,” said petitioner Jared Daily “we’ll definitely get more than 304.”

Andre Salais, a former ASMCC vice president noticed the low numbers, “I think it’s pitiful honestly,” he said “and this is something that we’re looking to change this year,” Salais now sits on the ASMCC elections committee.

One of the big changes going into this year’s election will be paper ballots, which are being brought back for the first time in decade according to Salais.

However Kuhn does not agree that the paper ballots will make a big difference “the thing I think that will bring out a lot more voters is the diversity of candidates, because we have four (presidential) candidates from all different corners of campus.”

Even some of the students who are aware of the election remain unaware of the candidates Aron Mixson said he will be voting for “I think his name is Chuck, he’s the only one I’ve seen around campus,” and his reason for voting is “just to vote.”

“Student government is not getting the campus active enough, like I said the only one I ever seen is the guy Chuck and that’s because he has posted signs everywhere maybe they need to be more active,” said Mixson.

But as the election looms students are still unaware that it is even happening.

“The promotion needs to be better from the whole student government, so everybody knows what’s going on. Because it doesn’t seem like anyone ever knows,” said James, “I saw some sort of poster a little thing that said ASMCC student election, but that’s it.”

The student body president thinks it is more than just a promotional issue.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of marketing, I believe the past three years it’s definitely gotten a lot better, I mean you can only put so many signs out,” said Kuhn, “now with the all the new posting rules we can’t put up any signs pretty much anywhere, you have to have put them in the three designated locations.”

ASMCC adviser Kim Kocak said that the student government has been doing a fantastic job of branding themselves this year, and that they have a great presence on campus.

She still however admits “there is lots of room for improvement, I think it’s just about making sure students are aware of ASMCC … we are hopeful that the turnout will be much higher.”

For some student’s simply knowing ASMCC exists or that there is an election coming up is not enough.

“I just want to know what the student government even does, because I mean, I feel like if I knew what they were in charge of and the type of things that they were responsible for around school that I would probably actually care about who was elected in to office. I can’t really care if I don’t know what they’re doing,” said MCC student Israel Huerta. “That and also maybe it sounds too much like high school to say we should start voting in class and doing all that stuff. But I don’t know it seems kind of weak seems like people are uninformed or they don’t care.”

Students are so apathetic in fact that seasoned veterans of ASMCC like Salais are happy just to see “people running for all four positions,” a feat which he called “fantastic,” even with all three Vice Presidential candidates running unopposed.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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