Voter Turnout, Why so Low?

As Michaela mentioned, we spent a large portion of class discussing what Northeastern could do to increase voting turnout for the student President. Now before I discuss what one might be able to do to increase voter turnout, let us think why it is so low in the first place. One suggestion was that students do not think the president or this election really effects them. While I always assumed it does, the true duties and responsibilities of the president are unknown to me, having never been directly involved in Northeastern's SGA. Another reason, is directly related to our environment of living a student's (or Co-op's) life. This is one of flooded inboxes, whether it be spam or emails from professors, etc. It is impossible for a student to step out of their dorm on campus and walk to class without being confronted by at least a dozen of marketing ploys to try and get us involved with one activity or another. This barrage of information in my case at least, turns out to have an opposing effect on me.

When I leave my dorm, I encounter around 3 posters outside the elevator. Once I get to the lobby of my dorm the doors are normally coated in posters as well. Walking through campus I am greeted by notifications in chalk on the ground, and people handing out flyers. Entering Ryder to go to class, cue more posters on the door, the walls, maybe some flyers thrown around the desks, and presumably something written on the chalkboard. As my walkthrough shows you it is just not possible to look at all the posters, most of them are old anyway, and it inevitably results in me ignoring most of them.

Now, what to do about this problem. One possible solution is most certainly what Michaela had said a few posts ago. FREE. This is the golden word for college students. Provide something free, and you shall see a turnout. However, I am not sure this will actually increase voters, it could, but most people there will be more interesting in receiving the free gift as promised, rather than the SGA elections. However, free things could bring in a crowd, and then it is up to the people running the event to captivate their audience with more than their gifts. Another method could be to make the election more personal, for more people . This might be as simple as increasing the number of representatives so that more people know someone involved in SGA and therefore hear more about the events and have more influence and personal connections to the election. The candidates could do a type of door to door, or golf cart parade as mentioned earlier. A personal discussion with a candidate would certainly help motivate students.

Another possible way to increase voter turnout could be through social media. The candidates were said to have a live tweeting debate, but what I am thinking is more with facebook. We discussed in class, that it would be an interesting experiment to have students who voted post on their statuses " I voted, did you?" or something along those lines. I feel as though many students may intend to vote but then simply forget to. This may be a great reminder for those types, and everyone else that the elections are occurring and that their friends are voting. The last way we discussed was simply the great standby of making voters visible. After voting one could imagine receiving a button or t-shirt about voting. Therefore during voting week you would having living reminders of the election surrounding you.