USG plans to push for more election votes


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USG has changed its strategy to get more students to vote in its election Feb. 15-17.

They are hoping to get 6,000 students to vote, over one third of the undergraduate population, and about 1,500 more votes than last year.

Current President Chris Cheng won last year’s election by 2,100 votes, 671 more than his closest competitor, and 4,551 students voted for one of the presidential tickets in 2009-10.

“This year we’re going to actively campaign for people to vote,” said Liz Trower, Senior Director of Communication for USG. “In the past, we mostly left election publicity up to candidates, who would campaign to certain groups.”

USG sponsored some nighttime events, which Trower said were poorly-attended.

Now, events will be during peak traffic times. There will be food trucks from 11:30 to 2 p.m. at the Tommy Trojan poll during all three days of voting.

“We’re offering incentives just to get people to vote,” Trower said. “We’re not giving incentives for them to vote for any particular candidate.”

The voting polls located at the Lyon Center, Finger Fountain, Student Union Kiosk and Leavey Library will all have free pizza as well.

Students can also vote online on the elections website, which will have information about the candidates uploaded soon.

For more coverage on the 2011 USG elections, click here.