Friday, April 28th 2006
When voting soars, who wins?
The Daily Cal is reporting that voter turnout in the ASUC elections has soared this year, up over 4000 from last year. The rise is mainly attributed to the introduction of online voting, which more than made up for the apathy expected as a result of the perceived lack of competition.
The question remains: who will benefit the most from the increased turnout? Previously, there was great opposition to online voting, as it would change the rules of the game. Now that the dynamic has been changed, I won’t be surprised if things turn out differently from what people expect. Upset victories in the executive races? More independent and third-party representation in the Senate? I predict opponents of the status quo will be pleasantly surprised come results time.
I’ve wanted to have polls here for some time, so let’s make this the first official Patriot Poll:
My guess is two groups will benefit.
First, foremost, and most unfortunately: Student Action, simply because they have the most visibility, so when people who usually wouldn’t vote go to vote, odds are the only names they will remember will be Oren, Vishal, et. al.
Secondly, Mario Party, people with gimmicky “nicknames” or anything else that might be amusing to someone who does not in any way care about the ASUC but is still voting for the hell of it. Simply due to the fact that more people are voting, and these new voters are, by definition, not passionate since they wouldn’t vote if it wasn’t online, I predict more randomness in how the voting turns out.
While SA will probably win every executive office, the sheer randomizing effect of that many new voters will mean some votes for Tom Bell, DAAP, and other randoms thrown in there.
Exciting times we live in. (Cracks open a 6pack and waits for the lawsuits to start rolling in).
Comment by John W. — 4/28/2006 @ 1:40 pm
If the Co-Op candidate was halfway competent in his campaign, he’s in.
Comment by Donald — 4/28/2006 @ 2:16 pm
please, let squelch win a bunch of stuff.
Comment by carlo — 4/28/2006 @ 2:26 pm
when voter turnout soars (and when online elections rule) SA has the clear advantage. CS knows this…which explains why they dragged their feet with online elections.
It comes down to who has the best name recognition. Vibrator races are great, but SA is freakin’ everywhere.
Comment by Anonymous — 4/29/2006 @ 8:13 am
also, when Igor and Ben start using the SA name to label themselves, you know who’s won the name recognition battle.
Comment by Anonymous — 4/29/2006 @ 8:16 am
SA started to doubt that theory last year when a low voter turn out resulted in them winning all four exec seats and a hefty senate majority. The entire idea behind annoying people on Sproul is that the people that it works on, you can walk to the polls, the people that it pisses off just aren’t going to vote because expressing a preference for the alternative takes effort.
I think who gets the advantage in this scenario is still a question.
Comment by Anonymous — 4/29/2006 @ 10:40 am
I agree with Anonymous that who gets the advantage of increased turnout is in question. It remains to be seen where the increased turnout came from — if it was grad students voting for the GA MOU, that has much different ramifications than if it was just “increased turnout” overall.
Comment by Jim Fung — 5/1/2006 @ 8:06 pm