Voting Should Be A Habit, Not a Choice

Today marks the first day of Nominations Week. Soon presidential hopefuls will be wooing the good students of St Andrews with campaigns, promises and parties. But if we stick to historical precedent, only about 20% of students will even bother with voting at all.

This seems strangely blasé of us when we consider the lengths our ancestors went to get everyone the vote in the first place.  Various property-holding laws afflicted British policy for decades, the US took its time getting rid of literacy tests and thinly veiled racist policies, and Switzerland only gave women the right to vote in 1971. Yet in recent national elections the turnout to the polls has been, frankly, embarrassing.

I’m personally a fan of Australia’s mandatory voting policy. Refusal will only result in a $20 fine, yet the land down under benefits from a 90% turnout rate at the polls. Maybe the success of this law stems not from its consequences, but rather from the enforced idea of social responsibility.

Our student elections surely don’t hold the weight of national ones, but perhaps we should be a bit more concerned with the principle of voting. Historical ponderings aside, here are five practical reasons to fill in your ballot this year:

1. Last year’s “joke candidate” was rather alarmingly successful. Sure, the campaign was all fun and games while it lasted.  If this trend continues, we may accidentally elect one as president.
2. The President has a massive budget. Massive, of course, being a relative term here. In student terms—he/she has a massive budget. Their level of competency, or lack thereof, could have a monetary impact on your day-to-day existence.
3. The Student Association actually does stuff. There may not be a foreign policy advisor in their cabinet, but their decisions do hold weight concerning student issues. Thanks to their good work last year, we now have a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment. Recently they’ve helped us get more student accommodation, fought to get the library open 24/7 during revision, and campaigned against the NHS’s unpopular, new idea to charge yet another fee to international students.
4. The S.A. Pres gives is a person to complain at. If there’s; no room left in the library for you to eat an entire bag of Kettle Chips and fiddle around on Facebook…or….the price of your favourite drink in the Union went up 50p…or…your society lost its funding, save your complaints for someone who cares…the President. If you help elect him/her, then you have a better platform for making your complaints.
5. The Student Association is pretty much the only forum our fragile student voices have in this great institution. Although “being heard” might sound arbitrary, it’s really not when you consider the fact that our student council is helping to shape the policy of Scotland’s oldest university. If you want any say, now’s the time to say what you want.

Our generation needs to get in the habit of political participation and respecting those who made it possible. So this year, I propose self-imposed mandatory voting.  This is your university, your Union, and your vote.  

Image courtesy of: http://www.verbicidemagazine.com/category/beneath-the-bqe/