Student executive sees low turnout rate despite hours of promotion
The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) will be hosting its semi-annual by-elections today, the Tomato learned this morning.
Candidates will be expected to submit their nominations and platforms no later than five days in the past.
“Surprisingly, we haven’t gotten too many applicants this year,” said vice-president of services and communications Crancesco Faruso. “Why does this keep happening to us?”
“I considered running, but I just couldn’t deal with the unpopularity of being associated with the SFUO,” said Doug Armstrong, a third-year business student. “I’d prefer to keep working towards a job as a Wall Street banker who pops children’s balloons for fun.”
However, some people have been very excited to run.
“I only heard about the election this morning, but I got signatures pretty quickly” said Joseph Peterson, a fourth-year engineering student. “I lied and told people it was a petition to disband the SFUO. They were just begging to sign.”
When asked how he prepared a platform so quickly, Peterson responded. “Platform?” As Peterson is running unopposed, he didn’t seem too concerned.
“I’m very excited to run,” said Sarah Enton, a fourth-year economics student. “I didn’t actually plan to, but I accidentally walked into the SFUO office this morning and they told me I was in the race.”
However, voter turnout rates in today’s election have been poor so far, to say the least.
“What are you talking about? Of course I’ve heard about the election,” said Dale Andrews, a fourth-year history major. “Hillary is gonna mop the floor with Donald Trump!”
“Oh, that’s what those people are doing lining up in the University Centre. I thought they were still giving out U-Passes,” said Macy Wright, a first-year communications student.
“I’m surprised I didn’t hear about it. I get push notifications for all SFUO social media posts delivered to my phone,” said Scott Smith, a third-year political science student, pulling the device out of his fanny pack. “They do have a cool new app though, so that’s nice.”
But Smith said he’s excited to vote, if somewhat confounded.
“I don’t actually know who the candidates are, but it should be interesting anyway,” he said. “I like the thrilling element of chance, it’s like Russian roulette.”
Polling stations have seen little traction so far. “We thought we were getting a rush at our UCU station, but it was just a dance team cha-cha sliding by,” said Faruso.
Faruso says he’s not sure what voter turnout is exactly so far, as nobody turned up to collect the tally sheets.
“For the purposes of your article, let’s just assume it’s 100 per cent,” he told the Tomato.
For future by-elections, Faruso said that students would be given more time to apply for SFUO by-elections.
“We’re prepared to radically extend the time limit, and tell students about the election a whole day in advance,” he said. “That should fix everything.”
