By Raven TysonAssistant City Editor
Every vote counts.
That’s the message Associated Students is conveying about theelection this week.
In the past few elections, voter participation has been low. In2000, A.S. elections only drew about 6.87 percent of the students.Last year, the number dipped to 6.51 percent.
To boost those numbers, A.S. made increasing voter turnout one oftheir priority goals for the year. More specifically, A.S. wanted toincrease voter turnout to 16 percent — a 10 percent raise fromprevious years. The goal was applied to the fee referendum — whichfell short at 10 percent — and A.S. elections this week. Studentsvote today through Thursday.
In an effort to get students to vote, A.S. is wearing yellow “Votetoday” T-shirts, which they also wore during the fee referendum March13-14.
A.S. has also planned a series of activities to take place inAztec Center throughout the week. Candidate speeches will be heldfrom noon to 1 p.m. today on the Aztec Center Patio Stage.
For the past two years, A.S. presidential candidates have rununopposed. However, this year, there are two candidates vying for thetop position — current Vice President of External Affairs PriscillaOcen and A.S. College of Sciences representative Josh Miller.
There are two candidates running for executive vice president –Native American Student Alliance chair Manny Lieras and A.S. Collegeof Education representative Juanita Salas.
The biggest competition is for the vice president of externalaffairs seat, with four candidates competing for the position:Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan chairman Ron Gochez, A.S.College of Arts and Letters representative Jeffrey Obayashi, A.S.College of Business representative Marivic Tolentino and JuanZubiate, who works in the A.S. Business Affairs Office.
Students running for vice president of finance are Finance Boardvice chair and College of Business representative Ryan Tolentino andformer MEChA representative Felix Diaz.
Students are also asked to vote on College Councilrepresentatives. Justin Orenstein, Truong Diep and Andrew Gallacherare running for the College of Arts and Letters; Tracy Glinka andBrett Pearsall are running for The College of Business; Scott Simpsonis the only person running for the College of Engineering seat;Neremiah Sanchez Castano is running for The College of Health andHuman Services; Adelle Gomelsky and Cristina Ruiz are running for TheCollege of Professional Studies and Fine Arts; Christina Campbell andTricia Solomon are running for the College of Sciences.
While no one’s name appears on the ballot for theundeclared/unclassified seat, Chris Manigault is running as awrite-in candidate. Manigault was originally going to be on theballot, but was removed — in accordance with A.S. bylaws — becausehe submitted his candidate packet after the deadline.
There is no candidate running for the College of Education, whichhas two seats on council.
In addition to increasing voter turnout, A.S. wants to gaugestudent opinion during the election.
A.S. has placed four questions at the end of the ballot, askingstudents about parking, attendance at athletic events, student e-mailaddresses, experiences at San Diego State and opinions about A.S. Theinformation will be used by A.S. to see in what ways the council canbecome more active or champion certain issues.
