Thursday, April 14, 2011

What is the average turnout in SG elections?

For years, ASGA has referred to a figure of 2 percent nationwide in Student Government elections. This accounts for all types of institutions, but is lower because so many community and technical colleges either don't have elections or have very poor turnout. However, we have been seeing evidence that turnout has been increasing. So we recently surveyed the nation to see what the current figure is. We've received nearly 400 completed surveys and are aiming for 500. This would be 10 percent of the institutions participating. So far, the turnout is much higher than 2%. About 43% of the respondents have turnout under 10 percent and 70 percent have turnout under 20 percent. The survey so far has higher participation among private institutions and lower participation among community colleges. We're concerned that those with higher turnout are more likely to participate as well. ASGA also gathers data from our own internal research. So in the next few months, we're going to reviewing all of this and producing a report on what the turnout is now nationwide among all types of institutions.