Student votes increase from previous years in primary elections
February 26th, 2015 Posted in OpinionUtah State University students cast 20 percent more votes in this year’s primary election over last year’s primary.
By the time voting ended on Tuesday at 3 p.m., more than 3,000 students had cast a vote.
“Usually we have anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500,” said Whitney Fletcher, the USUSA public relations and marketing director. “We’ve really tried to make it very clear to students it’s elections week.”
Fletcher said the election has been more heavily advertised this year than in past years. It has been promoted through posters, banners, yard signs and social media.
“All the advertising raised awareness so that I knew what was going on with the election,” said Michael Kay, a student who hasn’t voted in the past but did vote this year.
Fletcher believes the number of candidates running this year also had a major influence on the voter increase. Last year there were eight unopposed candidates. This year only two were unopposed, one of whom was an incumbent.
“More people running has made it more of an interesting election,” said Yusuf Mumin, a senior at USU who has been involved in campaigns since his freshman year.
Students can find more information on the candidates and cast their vote at usu.edu/ususa.
The final round of voting ends Thursday at 3 p.m.
Hillary Dodd, Samantha Kiser, Jillian McCarthy, Kayla Watanabe and Olivia Webb contributed to this report.
-mdl
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