Free and Fair (and Uncontested) Elections

Photo courtesy of Dartmouth.

Before a big game or test, friends often tell each other, “Good luck, but you don’t need it.” With more uncontested races than not in the Dartmouth Student Body Elections, never have these words rung truer. 

David Millman ’23 and Jessica Chiriboga ’24 ran unopposed for student body president and vice president, respectively. Alas, it did not stop there: Of the eighteen House Senate races, six were contested, nine were uncontested, and three required write-in candidates (Allen House Senator ’23, North Park Senator ’24, School House Senator ’24). The ballot for senior class president had four names while that for senior class vice president boasted only one. For the Class Council, in which three students per class are selected, the race for the 24s featured three students while that for 25s offered quite the selection with a whopping six students running!  Last, and certainly least (in terms of engagement), the Community on Standards (COS) required three additional write-ins to fill six positions. (To clarify, the term “uncontested” is used in reference to official candidates that appeared on the election ballot.)

For the duration of April, emails from Dartmouth’s Elections Planning and Advisory Committee (EPAC) flooded student inboxes. At the beginning of the month, the Committee strongly encouraged students to run, even using Wayne Gretzy’s hackneyed quote, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Running required little more than submitting an intent-to-run form before April 14, and then putting up the obligatory poster or two on a bulletin board…if that.

The bulk of EPAC communication came at the end of the month. This time, instead of the Gretzky GIF, the Committee opted for ALL CAPS SUBJECT LINES imploring students to vote. The first of these arrived on Apr 25 at 1:32 PM, announcing, “VOTE AT 5:00 PM.”  Hours later when the polls opened,“VOTING IS LIVE – VOTE NOW.” Next, “VOTE RIGHT NOW” on April 26 at 1:09 PM. And lastly, a personal favorite, on Apr 26 at 4:09 PM: “JUST DO IT.” Queue visuals of the NIKE T-shirt every boy in middle school wore and the Shia LaBeouf meme from 2015. Frankly, I am unsure if the last message was supposed to be comical or just a sign of desperation. Nevertheless, I tip my hat to EPAC because its members really did try. At the end of the day, no matter how many ALL CAPS emails one sends, an unengaged or indifferent student is unlikely to change his/her ways. 

Voting began on April 25 at 5:00pm and ended on April 26 at 5:00pm, giving students an entire day to cast a digital ballot … a ballot, I might add, that took less than three minutes to complete. A total of 1458 ballots were cast for Student Assembly President and Vice-President – Millman received 1349 votes and Chiriboga received 1360. With upwards of 6,000 enrolled undergraduates, this means that less than one-quarter of the student body voted. This number is more or less on par with previous years in which multiple candidates ran. 

Despite running uncontested, Millman and Chiriboga ran a serious campaign. It comprised a well-designed website, Instagram account, and multiple meet-ups with the student body. Their best attended campaign event featured Dominos galore on the steps of Rocky the Saturday night before elections. Though their aim was to communicate with students, many attendees were en route to or from Frat Row and could barely muster a sentence. With an ambitious  platform focused on mental health, housing, dining, and restructuring the Dartmouth Student Government, maybe more students will be enticed to run for their positions in the future.

The Dartmouth Administration never wastes an opportunity to vaunt incredibly high levels of student engagement—every admissions tour strolling past Collis highlights the College’s quasi-infinite number of student groups on campus. However, the uncontested nature of more than half of the student body elections coupled with the low voter turnout suggests otherwise. What, though? Optimistically, this indicates that students seek to create change through other channels, whether on ski patrol or the debate team. Pessimistically, this speaks to a far greater issue at play, not only at Dartmouth, but in higher education altogether: college students simply do not care much about engagement and improving their school. They view a position in a student group as yet another line on the resume and a post for followers on LinkedIn. The clubs that they occasionally attend are simply means to an end as they ascend the hierarchy of corporate America. I concede that this does not need to be a total dichotomy pitting care against apathy. Still, it should raise some eyebrows about what it truly means to be an engaged Dartmouth student and perhaps inspire a bit of self-reflection.

1 Comment on "Free and Fair (and Uncontested) Elections"

  1. One Eyed Kat | May 24, 2022 at 9:51 pm | Reply

    Nice article. Hopefully you will inspire people to be more active in student affairs and politics. At the national level, we are experiencing the consequences of poor candidate choices at all levels of government.

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