Ayon wins treasurer's seat

Students care less about elections

Despite increased voter turnout attributed to the high-profile Beach Pride Referendum, the recent student government elections on campus drew less than 10 percent of the school's roughly 27,000-student population.

The 3,003 students who voted in the elections March 27-29 represent a small slice of the student body, said Stuart Farber, director of Student Life and Development.

Although turnout was larger than in some previous elections, Farber said, some students attributed the low overall number of votes' cast to disinterest as well as the lack of a presidential race.

"I was just too busy," said psychology senior Estella Melendrez, who said she did not vote. "I didn't know who the candidates were or what the issues were.

"I'm not going to vote for someone just because I see a pretty face," Melendrez said, pointing to a political campaign poster of a smiling Justin Ramirez, Associated Students Inc. treasurer candidate.

One campus official said he sees election procedural change as the answer.

"Maybe we need to consider different polling locations or different ballots," said Armando Contreras, executive assistant to the President's Office. "We really need to study it a little more and see what we can do."

Another student who did cast a ballot only voted because she said she felt "it should be done."

"Even though I didn't know the candidates' background, I felt it was just the right thing to do," said Pernille Borgholm, junior sociology major and international student from Denmark. "I felt I should get involved on campus."

Other area campuses have varying voter turnouts, ranging from 28 percent at USC to about 5 percent at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson.

"About 5 to 10 percent of the student population turns out to vote when we have our yearly elections," said Angelena Phifer, a student assistant at the CSUDH student government, who estimated the school's population at 12,500.

"I don't think it's that they are disinterested," said Sen. Erica McIntosh, College of the Arts. "I think that people have different schedules. People are on the go and they don't read what's going on on campus. But the voter turnout has really improved over the past years."