Voting dropped by nearly 12 percent in this year's Student Government Association executive board election.
In the 2004 election, the last time a vote took place: 4,042 students participated.
Monday and Tuesday: 3,567 people cast their ballots.
Currently enrolled: more than 20,000 students, counting graduate and undergraduate students.
Less than 18 percent of Ball State's student body voted in this year's race.
Not only is that pathetic, but it's an indication that these up-and-coming SGA representatives have a big challenge ahead of them.
This election - like all SGA elections - included constant repetition of the promise to get more student voices represented in SGA, to bring student thoughts and concerns more to the forefront, to make SGA's accomplishments truly follow the desires of the student body. But with 18 percent voter turnout, the first challenge will be reaching out to those students to determine what it is they want.
While Team Lisec deserves congratulations for receiving about 67 percent of the vote, The Cardinal Movement also deserves credit for getting 1,171 students to vote for them - or to vote at all.
And Team Lisec must not forget, when it moves into that SGA office in a couple of weeks, that about 33 percent of the voting public supported and appreciated the goals of The Cardinal Movement. That means, in order to fully represent the student body that voted them in, the members of Team Lisec have a responsibility to hear and incorporate the ideas of their opponents - the ideas that inspired those 1,171 students to get involved in the SGA process this week.
Although Team Lisec had the experience and professionalism that impressed a majority of the voters, The Cardinal Movement presented fresh and exciting ideas to change SGA in the student interest.
Asher Lisec has already said she hopes to work with The Cardinal Movement's candidates to implement change in SGA - now is the time to prove that. After all, reaching out to the student body means reaching beyond the Student Senate, and The Cardinal Movement included many students with no SGA affiliation. So that's the logical first place to start.
In order to gain the support and appreciation of the entire voting public, Team Lisec should spend the next couple of weeks preparing to enter the executive office by planning how to be immediately productive in achieving platform goals, as well as beginning the conversation with The Cardinal Movement candidates to determine the best way to run SGA. Only after all those plans are fully laid out will the slate be as productive and effective as it can possibly be.
At which point, the executives can begin working to reach the other 82 percent of the students they represent.
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