Weeks of campaigning, flyer-hanging and speech-making will end Thursday, when the freshman class will elect 12 students to Duke Student Government’s Senate.
Freshmen will receive an email Thursday morning directing them to the website where they can cast their vote. The 46 candidates currently in the race are running for positions on seven committees—Academic Affairs, Durham and Regional Affairs, Equity and Outreach, Facilities and the Environment, Residential Life, Services and Social Culture.
Junior Joseph Denton, who leads administration of the election and is DSG's attorney general, said the race has been one of the friendliest he has seen.
“It’s truly been one of the most positive election experiences I’ve seen in DSG,” Denton said. “The last two days of any election are always the most heated though, so I definitely want to encourage everyone to keep it friendly.”
The Chronicle reported that when polls closed last year, a total of 662 votes had been cast—a decline from the previous year's 831 votes.
Junior Abhi Sanka, executive vice president of DSG, explained that voter turnout largely depends on the campaign efforts of those who are running. He said DSG’s Board of Elections is currently working to identify ways to increase students’ civic engagement and allow candidates to better connect with voters during the spring elections.
“There is a great deal of freedom for candidates to be creative and innovate ways to reach out to voters,” Sanka wrote in an email Tuesday. “We don’t expect candidates to be masters of campus policies and have fully developed platforms. Rather, we encourage them to present who they are to voters, their requisite skills and experience in leadership.”
Candidates’ conduct during the race and on Election Day is governed by several DSG rules, including a campaign funding policy—each student running receives a $25 campaign allotment from DSG for campaign materials. In an effort to ensure fairness, candidates are not allowed to use ePrint funds or other materials already within their possession.
But Denton said some of the most efficient campaigns haven’t used that entire allotment.
“It’s a trend I suspect we will continue to see—students using diverse methods of digital media that don’t have a dollar amount attached to them,” Denton said.
Sanka said he’s been impressed with the creativity displayed by a number of the candidates and looks forward to seeing what the freshman class will contribute to DSG.
There are six candidates for Academic Affairs, eight for Durham and Regional Affairs, five for Equity and Outreach, six for Facilities and the Environment, three for residential life, eight for Services and eight for Social Culture. The amount of open senate seats varies by committee, with one or two open on each.
Results will be announced around 11 p.m., Denton said.
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