Senate needs voter turnout

Senate must have at least 560 votes in the current election

Student Senate is still slaving away to finish elections. With any luck, the 20 percent of the College needed to make Senate elections official will have cast its ballots and 10 new senators will take their seats by Sunday's meeting.

In the meantime, the five remaining senators, beyond running elections, are working hard on other things as well. Moreover, they have begun setting new goals for themselves. Some of the goals include a College policy against buying sweat shop products, ending the long-distance phone card monopoly, reevaluating behavior contracts, and opening discussion on Allen Memorial Hospital informing Safety and Security of any telephone calls made to them by students.

As of Wednesday, Senate has only received 150 ballots, 20 of which were void due to lack of mailbox numbers and student identification numbers, which are used to check the validity of the ballot. In order to complete the elections 560 students must vote.

This poor voter turnout could be a reflection of the apathy felt by most students in regards to senate.

"I can't vote, I don't know anyone who's running," is a common reply to the question, "Have you voted yet?"

It seems that most candidates are not well known, even though 10 of them will assume office, hopefully, on Sunday. In elections everyone is supposed to be accosted by numerous signs, facing them whenever they sit down on the toilet or walk to class. Those signs are lacking.

In the mailroom, students could be heard to say, "I'm not going to vote, I don't even know what Senate does." Very few people were seen to fill out their ballots; the majority took ballots out of their mailboxes an put them straight into the recycling bin.

The question then remains whether Senate will reach its goal by Sunday. Judging from student reaction to the election, senators will need to intensify the campaign to get the needed number of votes.