Students Elections? Yes, No, Maybe So?

Look at that guy, how can you not vote?

Currently at MSU, students are voting for their college and class representatives…well not really.  The polls are open, but for some reason no one finds it appealing to vote.  The reason they don’t vote, I am unclear about, but why people should I am quite clear.

For the elections, I worked promoting people to actually go and vote.

Yes, I was that annoying girl sitting at a table who would ask you if you voted and then tell you all you had to do.  While this doesn’t seem that difficult to do, especially because the process to vote only takes about five minutes, it was much more difficult than I anticipated.

As people would walk by, all I would ask is if they had voted.  While there were many people who would ask for what, what can they do, no, etc., there were also many people who would just comment rudely and/or completely ignore what I was saying.  I don’t know if it is because I am normally the person who gets sucked into people trying to sell me stuff or some other reason, but I had difficulty comprehending why exactly these people didn’t even attempt to care about the student elections.

Student government can sometimes seem pointless.  While I do think that sometimes they try to make a bigger deal out of the role it plays on campus, I will not deny that it is an important aspect of campus life.

One major role that student government plays is they put on activities for students throughout the year.  One major event MSU planned this year was a Macklemore concert. While I personally did not attend, I do know many people who did.  Some of whom could have been the very people who pretend that student government isn’t important.

Along with that, they also offer several resources. One resource is free blue books which is something that I have taken advantage of several times because why should I have to pay for something when it is supplied, so that I don’t have to pay for it.

Student government also gives people the opportunity to get involved in local politics.  Yes, I am considering campus politics as local politics.

If anything, this is where people should be the most involved because what the university decides to do, directly affects how much we spend and what exactly they do with that money (along with many other reasons).  Students who want to have a career affecting policy are able to get their start working on campus.

I know that these may seem like weird reasons to actually care about student elections, but doesn’t it show something if students don’t care?  If they don’t care about things at the small level, then how can we be sure that they will actually vote on policies that are important (e.g. marriage equality, presidential candidates, environmental policy, etc.)?

I know the difference between a blue book and who runs the country are not at the same level of importance, but it is the concept of not caring that concerns me.

If you didn’t vote, why not?

Is it really that much of an inconvenience to? Instead of going on Facebook when you first get on your computer, go to the website and take five minutes of your time to vote? Or is there some other reason, some of which may be legitimate (i.e., not knowing who the candidates are and thinking it is unethical to vote for people you know nothing about)?

If you did vote, then thank you.

It means that I did my job and it shows that you do care to an extent about what happens on campus.

Or you just were tired of having to tell all the annoying people at the tables that you still hadn’t.