San Jose State’s Associated Students elections will proceed on schedule, despite the shelter-in-place order setback, according to Chief Election Officer Cynthia Fernandez-Rios.
Although all on-campus events were canceled because of the coronavirus crisis, the voting period will still take place between April 13 and April 16.
“Before COVID-19, we were on schedule,” Fernandez-Rios said in an email to the Spartan Daily. “Now that everything has transitioned online, we continue to be on schedule after a lot of discussion regarding how to proceed.”
The election process normally consists of four major in-person events: Elections Kick Off, Meet the Candidates, the Debates and the Election Results Party.
The first two events were canceled and transformed into social media events for the candidates to share their platforms.
“For Elections Kick Off, we switched it to an Instagram photo campaign,” Leadership and Government Coordinator
Samantha Quiambao said. “In that photo campaign, candidates sent in their name, major and what change they want to see at SJSU. Then we use our Instagram platform to showcase all the candidates.”
The debate will be held via Zoom on April 13 and will be moderated by the Spartan Daily. The Election Results Party is still scheduled for April 16, and is anticipated to take place online through Zoom.
“We are still looking at logistics for [the Election Results Party] and how we will support candidates virtually through Zoom,” Quiambao said.
As of Monday, there are 19 students currently running for A.S. positions, seven of whom are running unopposed.
An election shifting entirely online brought another level of uncertainty to anticipated voter turnout.
In 2019, voter turnout was 9.45% but this year the goal is to bump that number up to at least 10%, Fernandez-Rios said.
“Given the current circumstances, the voter turnout is unpredicted but we remain hopeful since all students are checking emails more often for their classes than before,” she said.
Students can vote through the A.S. website on computers or smartphones.
Social work senior Jose Mayorga said in a message to the Spartan Daily that he is not planning on voting in the upcoming election, citing his workload and inability to meet and interact with the candidates face to face as the main reasons for his decision.
“Not having actual interaction is a huge factor as to why I wouldn’t vote at this time,” Mayorga said. “But I would vote when there are less restrictions preventing [meeting the candidates at] gatherings or events.”
The shift has also changed how the current election budget will be spent.
“Many expenses have decreased,” Fernandez-Rios said. “Purchasing food for the events, printing Voter Information Guides and banners are a few of the biggest expenses that we are no longer inducing.”
Instead, Associated Students allocated $2,000 for prizes to incentivize student voters, and the rest of the budget is being put into the A.S. budget reserves.
These prizes are part of a publicity push that A.S. feels is necessary, given that students are no longer attending classes on campus, Quiambao said.
“We are definitely trying to publicize elections in new and different ways than done in the past,” Quiambao said. “That includes fun giveaways for our social media contests, utilizing the SAMMY app more than before and reaching out to campus partners to also publicize to their respective networks and communities.”
A.S. recommends that candidates assist in this effort by posting the elections on their respective social media accounts.
“We know that students are constantly online using social media and now are checking their emails more often due to their classes being online,” Fernandez-Rios said. “We anticipate that the communication about elections and from candidates will increase.”
