Spring Break
Today's the day: Campus voting begins
Mason W. Canales
Intern
Elections for Student Government Association senators and Homecoming nominees start today. Students can vote online at http://www.unt.edu/SGA.
"The official polling sites on campus are the general access computer labs," said Elizabeth Murphy, Garland junior and SGA elections coordinator. "There will be an icon on the desktop that will say, 'vote here.'"
The Internet makes the voting system extremely easy to manage, said Marcedes Fuller, San Antonio sophomore and the SGA's director of relations, communications and marketing. It provides a faster information turnaround for the campus.
Murphy said the election results will not be official until Saturday by 1 p.m. The SGA will release the final counts next Monday morning.
SGA voter turnout records show that, in the last two years, only about 2 to 4 percent of students vote in the spring and about 6 to 8 percent of students vote in the fall.
The SGA hopes to maintain or increase that percentage this year.
"Our goal is five percent of the student body, which is more than last semester," Murphy said. "We are doing a lot more publicity this year."
Last semester student voter turnout was at 2.9 percent.
Murphy said posters will be hanging in the computer labs, and a banner will hang in the University Union. The SGA's freshman interns will also be trying to get the word out.
The SGA is hosting a question-and-answer session with the senator candidates Wednesday in Wooten Hall, room 322. The meeting begins at 5 p.m. before the normal SGA meeting.
Most of the senate seats are unopposed, Murphy said.
There are 11 candidates running for seven seats in College of Arts and Sciences, and there are two candidates running for one seat in the College of Engineering.
"We haven't really seen very much senate campaigning, because there are only two schools that contested," Murphy said.
Candidate pictures can be found on the SGA's Web site, http://www.unt.edu/sga, under the "elections events" link.
"We have received great responses from the students, factually and staff, but this by no means a stopping point for us," Fuller said. "We are going to continue with our leadership. We have taken the business-be there approach to everything we do this year."
