As Student Government Association elections continue this week at the University of Memphis, the candidates will find it does not take much to get elected.
The reason: Only a fraction of the 17,000 undergraduate students at the university ever participate in the elections. A year ago, only 1,524 students voted, less than 8 percent of the people who were eligible to cast a ballot.
This year, there is no indication it will be any different.
“Honestly, I just think students are lazy,” senior marketing major Ben Daniel said. “Until I got involved in SGA, I didn’t vote either because I thought it (my vote) didn’t matter.”
Some say voter apathy on the Memphis campus is even worse than it is in the general public.
A report from the Bipartisan Policy Center states 58 percent of eligible citizens voted in the 2012 presidential election, versus the 8 percent of students who casted their ballot last year in the SGA election. Additionally, the number of voters was down two percent from where it was the previous year.
“I just don’t think students realize how much one vote can make a difference and change the results of the election tremendously,” Daniel said.
The polls opened March 24th at 8:00 a.m. and close March 26th at 11:59 p.m. By midday on the second day of voting, members from both parties surrounded the UC lawn encouraging students to cast their vote.
“Every student’s voice counts in this process and they should have a say in the decision which party is going to represent their school,” SHIFT party member and psychology major Ashley Courtney said. “The ballot is online, which makes it easy for everyone to find and navigate.”
Despite the parties’ attempts to raise awareness, some students say they still are unlikely to participate in the election.
“I haven’t voted because I don’t know enough about the candidates to make a decision,” nursing major Meghan Osbourn said. “If I knew what each party was going to do for our campus I would feel more comfortable about casting a ballot.”
With a total of 1,118 votes, Ricky Kirby of the Making a Difference party was re-elected in 2014, along with almost everyone in his party. Current Making a Difference presidential candidate Charles Uffelman hopes to land his party to a third term in office, while SHIFT presidential candidate David Knowles hopes to dethrone the incumbent party.
“This school has given me so many opportunities and next year I will be a senior so it will really be my last time to give back,” SHIFT vice president candidate Ali Kingston said. “I can’t think of a better way to do that than being the vice president of SGA.”
