The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) has made changes to this year’s elections in the wake of last year’s byelection and after seeing a decrease in voter turnout despite an all-time high achieved just two years ago.
According to data retrieved through the electoral office, the byelection held in March, 2018, saw a 4.5 per cent decrease in voter turnout after a 34.9 per cent turnout was seen in the original election held a month earlier.
Over 9,500 students voted in the original 2018 election, but after an overwhelming majority of ‘no confidence’ votes from students, three executive positions were still up for grabs that were later elected in the byelection.
But while the voter turnout was lower in the byelection, it was also lower than the 2017 CUSA elections which saw an all-time high of 37.2 per cent of Carleton’s near 26,000 undergraduate student population turning in their ballots.
Nada Ibrahim, this year’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)—who was also the CEO for the last two elections—said she thinks the decrease in voter turnout could perhaps be a result of the introduction of ranked voting in last year’s elections.
“If you look at the trends, voter turnout actually increased over the last few years until 2018, especially after the introduction of online voting [in 2015],” she said, pointing at the increase from 15 per cent voter turnout in 2014 to 26.6 per cent the following year in 2015.
“With online voting, we were actually able to reach out to more students,” Ibrahim said. “But I think with ranked voting introduced last year, students were still confused with how that actually worked.”
David Oladejo, CUSA’s president, said this year’s increased commitment to election advertisement and promotion might change that.
“It’s tough to get student engagement when it’s winter term and students just want to get to their class,” he said, “but I don’t think you can stop someone when they can just put their headphones in and walk away from you.”
“I think this year, we’ve done a good job of just getting ahead of everything and just ensuring everything is happening earlier in terms of a timeline,” Oladejo added. “We definitely don’t want to see another byelection happening this year.”
Oladejo said this year’s earlier elections—being held almost two months before previous years—would also be able to combat the decrease in voter turnout from last year.
“There’s election workshops this year and there’s also more time for the nomination period—all of these would hopefully get more engagement from students,” he said.
Ibrahim said she agreed with Oladejo.
“The byelection last year also came at a time that was later in the year when students were busier with school,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons why it was important to have it in January when students are not as busy and can vote much easier.”
Ibrahim said if the voter turnout is lower again this year, “it probably has to do with ranked voting and councillors will definitely need to discuss that.”
“I’m glad we’re not just focusing on the electoral office to promote the elections this year—we’re seeing CUSA actively taking a part in it as well,” she said. “We are hoping for a higher voter turnout this year, and so we’ll cross our fingers and see how it goes.”
The electoral office will begin accepting nominations for next year’s executive and council positions on Jan. 16 and accept applications until Jan. 19.
Campaigning will take place Jan. 23-29, with voting days on Jan. 30 and 31.
Infographic by Camila Giudice
File Photo
