Less than 5 percent of students voted in SGA election

Cyrus Nuval
Staff Writer

Voter turnout in last week’s Monroe Park SGA presidential elections increased by more than 56 percent over the previous semesters’ SGA elections.

This semester, 1,465 students voted in the elections, up from 938 votes last fall. This turnout represents about 4.6 percent of VCU’s roughly 32,000 students.

According to Katheryn Witt, chief chairwoman of the SGA legislative branch, the increase in voter turnout this semester was because of rising awareness about the elections and cooperation between SGA committees. Less than half of the number who voted this year voted in last year’s election, according to the SGA.

“I believe that an increase in publicity along with the campus-wide email that was sent out caused an increase in the voter turnout,” Witt said in an email. “There was great cohesion between our (elections committee) and our (public relations) committee when trying to better publicize the elections.”

Amani Walker, chairwoman of the SGA elections committee, said that efforts by a number of the SGA’s committees were pivotal in increasing publicity and awareness about the elections.

According to Walker, the improvements and techniques used this semester involved intensifying visual awareness of the elections and encouraging the candidates to be more personal when promoting themselves to the students. The SGA also used open meetings, classroom visits, email blasts and signs to broadcast the election.

“Our committee tried a lot of different techniques this year,” Walker wrote in an email. “We used social media to promote candidates as much as possible. We also took the criticism from last election and tried to address all of those critiques.”

Current president of the SGA Jae Lee congratulated the SGA candidates for their campaign work during the elections which he said were also a major factor in increasing awareness about the SGA in addition to the elections.

“(Walker’s) committee worked … towards having new advertisements and different channels to urge our fellow students to vote,” Lee said in an email. “I believe all of our candidates worked extremely hard in trying to promote themselves and our elections this year.”

President-elect Vikhyath Veeramachaneni said that he is impressed with the increased number of voters and hopes that the number will continue to increase.

“I want SGA to be something the students are proud of and I would love for voter turnout to continue increasing. Voter turnout means more voice,” Veeramachaneni said.

Although Walker and her committee’s goal was for a larger voter turnout than 1,465, she still considers this semester’s elections a small success by exceeding the spring 2012 semester’s voter turnout by 50 percent.

Walker said she hopes she or her successors in the elections committee can build from this in future elections. She hopes to maintain the momentum they made this semester and increase voter turnout exponentially in the future.

“Though we did not reach our goal, I am extremely proud of the voter turnout. I don’t remember the last time voter turnout has been this high,” Walker said. “As always, there is room for improvement. … The only place from here we can go is up. We know what worked and what didn’t work.”