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A Storm in a Ballot Box

Warning: Rant Alert!

February, the time to feel blue, to fry your brain on how to spend your RRSP allocation, to start worrying about taxes, and the time when you mouth freezes up whenever you breath through your mouth.

This is also the time when there is one thing most, if not all, university students think about more than anything else. The thing in their minds is the election of student associations. What do you think the answer was? How to spend their time during "reading week"?

One sure sign that you have been an university student for too long — you have witnessed six student association general elections as a student. After following so many elections, I found a few things in common. They are:

• Promises, Promises, Promises
  If you look at the campaign posters of the candidates, they often outline their promises vaguely. The promises include increase student representation in decision making, increase funding for clubs, or lobby for more funding for clubs. They would probably promise the Moon, too, if they can somehow pull the Moon down to Earth. Of course, with such broad promises, it is difficult to make sure that they actually keep their promises. Well, at least this provides future politicians good training for future battles. (I know, many people who run for office are genuine when they say that they are running to serve the public. Too bad the action of the few often ruins the reputation of the rest.)
• Voter Turnout, or Lack Thereof
  Back in high school, the student elections are held in the middle of the class (at least that was the case when I was in high school). The turnout is pretty close to 100% (okay, in a real democracy, you are not forced to vote, but this issue is too much for me to write). In most university student elections, the turnout rarely goes above 10%. In most elections, the results are invalid if turnout falls below 50%. Many candidates promise the increase student input, but with such a low turnout, a small group can decide how the student association is run.
  A possible reason for such a turnout is that university students are not there for long — federal, provinicial(or state), and civic governments affect our lives throughout our life time, but once we graduate from a school, our ties to a student government are likely severed for good.
• Clone Candidates
  Okay, the candidates are not really clones created from the same DNA. However, if you look at the candidates' promises, they often look very similar. There is not much to differentiate between the candidates. (Sometimes, an activist group may field candidates. You may or may not agree with them, but at least their platform can be distinguished the rest.) When you have people making similar promises, no wonder people have a hard time picking a candidate. This may be one reason so many students choose not to vote.
• And the Winner is...
  With such a low turnout, student elections often yield results not often seen anywhere else. The winning candidate may have less than 1000 votes (this has happened in an university with 20000+ students). In one instance, the candidate "Declined" actually came in second. Imagine what would happen if "Declined" actually wins the presidential race. Does that mean the president's post will be vacant for the term? (I think there are provisions to deal with situations like this, at least I hope there are.)
• Chaos Central
  All right, it is not like clowns have seized control of the election process, but there are instances when you wonder if the election is being run properly. I have seen (or read about) polling station being empty, people campaigning close to the polling stations, voters given the wrong ballot, poll workers writing the voter's student number on the envelope containing the ballot, ballots being tabulated more than a day after voting closes (when tabulation was supposed to begin within 12 hours after polls closed). Thankfully, most of these can be solved with proper training of poll workers. As for the last problem, the Chief Electoral Officer (the other kind of CEO) needs to make sure that the rules are being followed.

I know it is easy to be an armchair quarterback, and many students (myself included) are guilty for not doing their part to make the student (and other levels of) government work. I guess I can't be too negative on the poll workers, either, since they are volunteering their time to work on a (mostly) thankless job. I don't know if these problems can be fixed, since an university government is such a transient body. If someone wants to make changes, they may not be around to see the changes being implemented.

I guess democracy is like a muscle — we have to exercise it regularly to keep it strong.