The votes have been counted, the chalk that covered the sidewalks has washed away, and the stores along High Street have scraped all the campaign endorsements off their windows.
The Undergraduate Student Government elections are over.
Mike Goodman is the new president of USG, but not necessarily the choice of the majority of undergraduate students at Ohio State.
The voter turnout for this year’s election is the highest that it has been in years, according to Sarah Topy, chief of staff for USG, but that is still only 17 percent of the total undergraduate population.
“Most schools have between 11 and 15 percent voter turnout. OSU has the second highest turnout in the Big Ten, second to Northwestern who has a voter turnout of about 60 percent of their undergraduate student population,” Topy said. “But only 7,706 students out of 43,993 voted (at OSU).”
Because of the low turnout, USG elections may not accurately reflect the undergraduate population’s choice candidate.
Goodman received 2,431 votes, which accounted for 31.6 percent of the total vote. However, he was actually elected by only 5.5 percent of the total undergraduate population.
The absence of students at the polls could be attributed to many things, but it is probably due to a lack of interest, according Mike DuDash, a junior in mechanical engineering.
“I did not vote because I just don’t really care about the elections or USG. It doesn’t affect me, so why should I vote? I guess I am just not interested,” DuDash said.
Other students intended to vote, but were too busy or forgot.
“I went home for Easter break and I never got around to voting. I meant to log on and vote when I got home, but I totally forgot,” said Megan Hoover, a sophomore in history.
