Issue date: 5/6/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Krystle Coniglio Senior business marketing major Amy Gallina reads through the voter brochure before she casts her votes for the ASI executive positions and the ballot measures. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Krystle Coniglio Students cast their votes for Associate Students, Inc., executive positions and fee increase measures on April 28 near the University Union. [Click to enlarge]

Sacramento State students came out in record numbers in the Associated Students, Inc., election with a 14.2 percent voter turnout, which is considered high compared to previous years.

Joaquin Castaneda, Office of Governmental Affairs director, said the voter turnout was 8 percent more than the 6 percent voter turnout last year. For this year, Castaneda said 3,383 students voted out of the 26,611 students who were eligible.

Executive Vice President Roberto Torres, elected as the 2009-10 president, said campaign visibility helped increase voter turnout.

Executive Vice President-elect Shawn Smith said there were twice as many voters as last year and believes the five fee measures on the ballot played a major role in the larger turnout.

"Our slate had members out in the Library Quad each day, which meant we got to inform many students about the issues," Smith said.

Smith said he campaigned every day by handing out fliers.

"Although I won several endorsements and campaigned every day, it was anything but an easy victory," Smith said. Students voted in favor of the fee increases for Regional Transit and Recreational Sports; they voted down fee increases for ASI's internal programs and The State Hornet. The largest increase, the athletics fee, was also voted down, with 57.2 percent of students voting against the measure. This proposal would have increased the athletics portion of ASI's Student Activities Fee by up to $62.50 over the course of three academic years, leveling off at $125 at the 2011-12 academic year.

The ASI internal programs fee was voted down with a particularly wide margin, with 64.7 percent of students voting against the measure compared to 35.2 percent voting in favor.

This would have increased the internal programs portion of the SAF by $6 over the next three academic years. Of the 50 clubs and organizations on the ballot, the College Democrats took most of the votes with 4.51 percent.

Monet Blas, freshman criminal justice major, said candidates and organizations should try different approaches to reach more student voters.

"I think they should make ASI more known. Instead of being in front of the Union, they should be in the quad area where the sorority and frats booths are," Blas said.

Keyko Torres, junior English major, said she came out to vote because she is involved in groups such as the Queer Straight Alliance and Pride Center, which have had funding cuts under the current ASI administration.

"I look at the reason why (the candidate) is running, whether they want just something on their resume or if they actually care about the position," Torres said.

Catherine Robledo can be reached at crobledo@statehornet.com.

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