Carleton students and leaders were disappointed when, for the second year in a row, voter turnout in the Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) general election was below the 15 per cent required to pass financial referendums.
Only 13.4 per cent of undergraduate students voted in the election, annulling all three referendums on the ballot as a result.
The referendums included the creation of a fee for the Unified Support Centre (USC) and the removal of the Millennium Promise fee, which had 71 and 75 per cent of students in favour, respectively.
The ballot also included a third referendum on increasing the levy fee for CUSA’s clubs and societies, but the referendum was rejected by 58 per cent of those who voted.
Carleton’s Board of Governors (BoG) is in charge of setting the voter turnout requirement.
Undergraduate governor Mira Gillis said she will not push to lower the requirement for turnout.
“If we just keep lowering it, then at the end of the day [CUSA will] be able to pass whatever they like,” she said. “You need proper representation of students.”
This issue is not exclusive to CUSA. In the BoG student representative elections, the four candidates running, including Gillis, were unopposed and acclaimed without a vote by students.
Gillis said although she believes CUSA’s recent electoral reforms have resulted in positive changes for CUSA, they have hurt voter turnout.
Last year, CUSA overhauled its democratic structure following an extensive report from its democratic review committee, which included students, CUSA staff and university staff.
Alongside other changes, the new structure made all executive positions aside from the president appointed by council rather than elected by students-at-large.
“I genuinely think CUSA needs to review its practices,” Gillis said, attributing the low voter turnout during the last two years to CUSA’s structural changes.“If they care about students they need to make sure that they are doing what is best for them.
Gillis said she reached out to the BoG after the election to see if the Millennium Promise referendum could be passed, but the board still required a 15 per cent eligible voter turnout.
A referendum to remove the non-profit group’s levy fee was overwhelmingly approved by students two years in a row.
CUSA vice-president (student life) Anshika Srivastava said she researched voter turnout in previous elections and found results indicate there would be a rise in turnout within the next few years. Usually after big changes or controversies, voter turnout decreases, then stabilizes again after a few years, she said.
“I think one of the most important takeaways is the fact that CUSA has faced ups and downs, even though the past two general elections’ voter turnout has been a little bit disappointing, it’s okay because we are in a new structure,” she said. “It takes time for stability to happen.”
She also noted Carleton has had a much higher voter turnout in the past, such as in a 2016 referendum, when over 41 per cent of eligible students voted.
Since then, voter turnout has fallen, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017, 37.2 per cent of eligible students voted. By 2021, during the first general election of the pandemic, the number had gone down to 24.7 per cent, before hovering around 13 per cent the last two years.
Liam Callaghan, operations coordinator at the USC, said the organization is experiencing a massive increase in requests for hampers and borrowed first aid kits compared to pre-pandemic levels and is in need of updated software and online systems to meet those demands.
Some of these plans include working with the department of university advancement to raise funds, applying to grants and increasing engagement with the community.
“We need a dedicated levy to meet students’ demand for hampers,” he said. “Our emergency essentials assistance program isn’t the only service experiencing record demand.”
Samuel Kilgour, CUSA director of student development, said the organization is already working to increase voter turnout for next year’s election.
He said this year was the first time the election occurred on a fixed date, and while holding the election period earlier than it was last year may have surprised some people, this new schedule will become more familiar to voters in the coming years.
“Going forward, we will always have that consistency so hopefully … that won’t be as much of a surprise,” he said.
He also pointed out that continuing to hire chief returning officers without ties to CUSA will be beneficial, as it will give candidates and voters confidence in a fair electoral system.
“We honestly think the [positive] tone in the election was in large part due to having this external [chief returning officer] being the officiant of the system, and we have every reason to believe that will continue,” he said.
While voter turnout was low, there were no reported electoral violations during this year’s election, which is an unprecedented change for CUSA, according to chief returning officer Connor Plante.
Kilgour also said rules restricting candidates’ use of paper campaign materials contributed to a lack of engagement.
In the future, CUSA hopes to initiate non-partisan classroom visits to inform students about the election, as well as expanding tabling options on campus.
Gillis, Kilgour and Srivastava all said the low turnout may be connected to the fact that there were only two candidates running for president.
Mohamed “Faris” Riazudden, president-elect and current CUSA vice-president (student issues), said he plans to increase student engagement next year by creating more jobs and positions for students within CUSA.
“More people involved with CUSA means more people know about CUSA, and their people know about CUSA,” he said. “I’m really looking to do a grand-scale involvement [campaign] for students in this upcoming year.”
Featured image by Arno Ryser.
