The Thelomathesian Society election immediately followed the record-breaking turnout in the national midterm election, where Democrats were able to flip the House of Representatives due to a large wave of young voters turning in ballots across the country. However, that sentiment wasn’t felt in the student government elections, as the campus lulled their way through the Nov. 14 voting deadline.
David Bonny ’19 attended the Thelmo debate on Nov. 6, and was surprised by what he had encountered. “There was almost no one there,” said Bonny. “It was unbelievable to me because this [debate] was in the Winston Room in the middle of the Pub rush.” Bonny said that other than a few current Thelmo members and the candidates themselves, the seats past the first row were left empty.
Student diagnosis on why there was a perceived lack of participation for this year’s election cycle has varied. Tyler Senecharles ’20 pointed towards the correlation between high-energy elections often coming with high-energy candidates.
“I mean we’ve seen it nationally with candidates like Beto [O’Rourke] and [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez that were able to drive people to the polls, and we saw it a bit with [current Thelmo president] Tinga Adiang last year,” explained Senecharles. “It could just be that people aren’t really feeling the candidates up for election this year.”
Kenyeri Xelhua ’21 said another issue may be the current reach of Thelmo not being as expansive as one would believe a student government to be. “All the debates have to do with money,” Xelhua said. “I think it should be focused on what can be done for the community, not how much something costs.” The focus on contingency meetings, according to Xelhua, seems to be the detrimental factor in the lack of Thelmo’s presence on campus.
The lack of enthusiasm extended beyond the Thelmo elections, as ACE’s candidate debate held at Pub 56 also struggled to receive any campus participation. Tanner Datz ’19 was eating dinner with friends at the campus eatery when ACE members began to ask him if he had any questions for the candidates.
“We were just there to eat some food and hang out,” claimed Datz. “The place was so empty I guess they thought we were there to ask them questions or something.” Datz believes that it is time for both Thelmo and ACE to look for new ways to get outreach out to members of the student body.