Record Turn Out

CSU 2011 Voting Period

NewsLaura Beeston — Published April 5, 2011

A record number of undergraduate students came out to vote in the 2011 Concordia Student Union elections March 29, 30 and 31, and the polling stations were feeling it.

Voter turnout in the Hall building on the first day alone saw over 600 people cast a ballot, said Oliver Cohen, the CSU’s Chief Electoral Officer.

By the time the polls closed on March 31, over 6,000 students had participated in the electoral process.Last year’s numbers came in at less than five per cent.

Cohen said he was pleased with the turnout in the new polling station at the John Molson School of Business building.

“This is the first time that [the JMSB] polling station has ever been 100 per cent active,” said Cohen. “There are 10,000 JMSB students and they’re obviously very active.”

Political hopefuls also noticed a difference.

“We got a record turn out, and I think that’s largely because students have found out what’s going on [in the CSU] and we engaged them,” said president-elect Lex Gill after the results. “If anything, the results of this election prove that you don’t have to be alienated and your vote matters.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 29, published April 5, 2011.