Campaign signs cover the lawns and windows of campus as students compete for positions on the final ballots of student elections.
Online voting for the primary elections of the Associated Students of the University of Utah began yesterday at 7 a.m. and will continue until 9 p.m. today. Students can vote online by going to the ASUU Web site www.asuu.utah.edu.
If students have difficulty voting online, they can pick up a paper ballot from the ASUU office in the Union. As of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, 1,010 students had voted, which is 225 fewer than had voted at the same time last year.
There are four parties running for ASUU president and vice president this year: Apathy, Elevation, Impact and Probable Cause. Party platforms are printed on Page 4.
The Apathy Party, led by Steven Paradise and Rodney Earl, has failed to attend the last three candidate debates. From the onset they ran their campaign geared more toward getting students to vote rather than voting for them.
“We’re having fun with this election,” Earl said during the Latter-day Saint Student Association debate. “We as students need to get rid of apathy on our campus.”
The other campaigns are very serious about running, however.
“We’re confident, but we’re not there yet,” said AnnMarie Allen who is running for president with the Elevation Party. “We feel good about our chances, we feel prepared.”
Allen has won three elections during her career at the U, winning positions on the Assembly and Senate. Before resigning so she could run for office, Allen was the senior class president. Colter Hammer, her vice presidential candidate, served as ASUU public relations board director.
“We tell students the biggest difference is education and experience,” Allen said. “We by far have the most, we feel that is a huge advantage.”
Allen is trying to educate students about her experience through “word of mouth” as she campaigns.
“I think it shines through our platform in what we want to do,” she said. “We’ve researched everything we’ve put on, we know ASUU’s limitations. We’ve been extremely honest.”
Elevation’s platform, some of it borrowed almost verbatim from No Bull’s successful platform from last year, promises to continue the successful programs of this year’s administration while adding increased support of the United Leadership Council, a better student discount card and greater publicity for the Student Advocacy Office.
Although Elevation has ties to the LDSSA and Greek Row, two of the largest groups on campus, Allen’s campaign aims at “everyone,” although she knows that everyone does not vote.
“I wish everyone would,” she said. “It takes years of ASUU really serving students to get students to believe they can.”
Allen also said ASUU needs to make an effort to encourage people to vote in ASUU elections.
The Impact Party, also with strong ties to Greek Row and LDSSA, hopes students from both of those groups will support them.
“We know the institute’s issues and needs,” said Randall Lloyd, vice presidential candidate from Impact from his campaign booth across the street from the institute. “A lot of people working for us are from the institute.”
Jessica Judkins, who is running with Impact for senior class president, is currently president of Lambda Delta Sigma, the sorority system of LDSSA. Steve McConkie, who will serve as LDSSA president next year, is also running with the Impact Party.
“I think we best represent the institute and Greek Row,” Lloyd said. “Billy [Edwards, Impact presidential candidate] and I are both active and involved on Greek Row. We know what the issues are, it’s close to our hearts.”
Although Impact has many people working with them who campaigned for Innovation last year, Lloyd insists his party is different from Innovation.
“We’ve got a lot of people who worked for all the [campaigns] last year,” Lloyd said.
Impact has 250 people on campus wearing its T-shirts and had 100 volunteers campaigning around campus.
“The volunteers we have are so enthusiastic,” he said. “There’s so many.”
Although Lloyd said everything in the campaign was going “great,” he is still unsure of whether or not his party will advance to the final elections.
“We don’t know until the votes are announced,” he said. “You never know, it’s such a huge campus.”
Lloyd refused to comment on whether or not Impact and Elevation will split the Greek Row and LDSSA vote. Steven Rinehart, presidential candidate from the Probable Cause Party, is counting on a split vote, however.
“We’re hoping for a split between the two candidates,” he said. “We’re hoping they weaken each other and we slip through the primaries.”
When Rinehart announced his intentions to run for office in early January, he planned to win by “the biggest landslide in U history.”
“I’m not as confident as I was,” Rinehart said. “I’ve realized special interest groups have more to do with it than the actual issues.”
Rinehart is the law student suing parking services, and comes to the election with no ASUU experience. His platform focuses on parking, teaching assistants who struggle with English and grading consistency.
He hopes this election will have a high voter turnout, but said students will vote “only if they care enough about our issues.”
Rinehart said he has received many emails from students, most of them expressing positive support for his campaign.
Although Rinehart still thinks he will make it through the primaries, he mentioned running without Senate and Assembly candidates and appearing abrasive as mistakes that he and his vice presidential candidate, Annie Deprey, have made.
“What’s done is done,” he said. “We really do want to win, we’re running the campaign as best we can.”
After voting closes and the Elections Committee reviews all the candidates’ financial disclosures, the results will be posted in the ASUU office. The candidates will be narrowed down to two for each available position, which will affect the race for president and vice president and a couple of students running for General Assembly and Student Senate offices.