With a strikingly low voter turnout for the 2024 election, the Student Government Association experienced a steep 72.5% decline in votes since the 2022 elections.
Leticia Castro, SGA treasurer-elect, said she chalks these results up to a general disinterest in voting on a broader scale, extending to local and presidential elections.
“Unfortunately, people don’t want to go out and register to vote,” Castro said. “People don’t want to vote. So, I wasn’t surprised when I saw the low number. I was taken aback by how low it was, but not surprised that it was low.”
In this year’s election, 747 votes were cast for president, vice president and treasurer. In 2022, there were 2,714 total votes, and in 2023, there were 2,157 total votes.
Castro said this theme was present within SGA as they struggled to find students to run for these roles.
“We extended the deadline to sign up to run for those positions,” Castro said. “Because initially, it was a week … or two weeks in February, which we extended all the way to March. It had to be done because no one signed up for those positions.”
While students may be involved in the campus community by joining clubs, this does not directly correlate to being involved in student government, Castro said.
“It’s more, ‘I’m going to stay in my club and pick out who’s running our executive board in our bubble,’ I’m hoping that we can figure out how to get more people to vote for senators for maybe next semester,” Castro said. “And seeing if more people are willing to just find the process.”
Getting students involved and informed is one of Castro’s many goals in office. She said teaching students how to get on CCSU Club Central to vote is “half the battle.”
One method for increasing student involvement that Castro looks to implement is a place for students to vocalize their concerns.
“I think the other thing we’ve talked about is having a town hall where the student body can just come tell us what their issues are and tell us what they would like to see changed or even what they hope to see in the future,” Castro said.
In the outreach Castro has done with registered voters and student voters, she said she has found a common theme of disengagement.
Castro said she frequently hears “I don’t care” from students. She also said she has volunteered at three voter registration events and heard similar responses there.
“More than half the people that I ask say, ‘Why would I bother?’ and that’s the same thing I’m seeing here,” Castro said. “Why would I bother? It’s not like it matters. The campus one matters a lot less than the national one, obviously. But it still matters, right?”
