[box]ASI elections produce one presidential candidate[/box]
Only one candidate will be on the ballot for the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) presidential election on April 25. Despite being an uncontested nominee, social sciences junior Katie Morrow will continue to present her campaign over the next three weeks.
Last year, 37 percent of Cal Poly students voted in the ASI elections. The turnout was a record high for the university, and beat previous California State University (CSU) turnouts by approximately 20 percent.
From 7 a.m. on April 25 to 7 a.m. on April 26, students can vote for all elected ASI positions on their My Cal Poly Portal. Though Morrow is the only presidential candidate on the ballot, she still needs to receive a majority (at least 51 percent) of votes to be elected ASI president.
“The biggest thing I want to stress is that there still needs to be just as much voter turnout,” Morrow said. “Just because there’s one candidate running for president doesn’t mean that people’s votes are lost.”
Morrow’s name will be the only one on the ballot, but voters have the option of filling in another name if they choose.
“There’s still a chance that someone else can win,” Morrow said. “At this point, you can’t file officially anymore, so no one can get on the ballot in the same way.”
Either way, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong wants to have as many people as possible competing for the position, he said.
“From an overarching perspective I think everybody, including Katie, would love to have more people in the race,” he said.
Despite wanting more people to be involved, Armstrong is confident in Morrow’s ability to successfully campaign and meet the minimum voter requirement.
“She’s campaigning hard, but I’ll look forward to working with her,” Armstrong said. “She’s a great young woman.”
Current ASI President Kiyana Tabrizi has also worked closely with Morrow over the past school year. Even with one candidate, Tabrizi is expecting Cal Poly to continue with the record-breaking trend of last year’s elections and is pleased with the applicant pool, she said.
“I’m very confident in the candidates that are running, not only for ASI president, but also for Board of Directors,” Tabrizi said.
Though there is only one presidential contender, ASI received a record number of entrants for Board of Directors. There are approximately 102 students on the ballot this year, nearly doubling the 65 applicants last year.
The Board of Directors is comprised of 24 representatives elected from each of the six colleges. Communication studies senior Maryam Moeinazad, who is currently on the Board of Directors for the College of Liberal Arts, is excited to see the number of applicants this year.
“It shows how much passion and commitment our university’s students have to step up and actually make a difference,” she said.
The role of Board of Directors is to serve as a corporate board for ASI as well as the official voice of every student, Moeinazad said.
“It is a very challenging role but the collaboration and outreach amongst students, clubs, administration and the city makes our student government effective,” she said.
Morrow agrees outreach is the reason that there are so many applicants.
“It’s not just me and my friends, or Kiyana and her friends,” she said. “It’s a really diverse group of people from all different areas of campus.”
ASI Administrative Assistant to Student Government Tracy Watson has been with the organization for eight years and has seen a large spectrum of presidential candidates. She has seen three candidates, she has seen two candidates and she has seen a candidate drop out of the race.
Having only one candidate in the race for ASI president will not change the importance of the process, she said.
“The students that do care will ask the questions,” Watson said.
Morrow said she thinks the campaign process will be real, even without an opponent.
“It’s just another opportunity. Everything about my campaign is real that way,” Morrow said. “It’s not like I’m looking at the other person like ‘what’s he doing’ or ‘what’s she doing’ and trying to compete with that.”
Regardless of the fact that she’s the only candidate for president, Morrow believes that the campaign process will still be just as important.
“Students still have a lot of questions about how their voices are going to be represented,” she said. “So I don’t think it’s going to be any less involved, if anything, I think it could be more involved.”