Why don’t students vote for their union?
With the Concordia Student Union in its by-election season, inconsistent voter turnout continues to raise concern
With the Concordia Student Union (CSU)’s 2025 by-elections underway, student voter turnout remains uncertain, having varied widely in recent years and often staying low.
The CSU is now in its campaign phase until Nov. 10, after which voting will take place from Nov. 11 to Nov. 13. But with voter turnout ranging between 5.7 per cent and 21.1 per cent over the last six years, and last year’s by-election turnout only reaching 11.2 per cent, what will the results at the polls look like this November?
According to CSU internal affairs coordinator Leo Litke, voter turnout in the by-elections took a hit due to COVID-19, as student life shifted predominantly to online or hybrid formats. As a result, many students were unaware of what was happening on campus.
“I feel like students get involved when they feel like they understand what is going on,” Litke said. “All the actual activities that were being done by student groups moved online or didn’t happen."
The highest voter turnouts in recent by-elections were recorded during the pandemic in fall 2020, when classes were entirely online, and in fall 2021, when the semester was hybrid. Voter turnout reached 17.8 per cent and 21.1 per cent in those years, respectively.
However, in fall 2022, during the first fully in-person fall semester since 2019, turnout dropped significantly to 5.7 per cent.
The by-elections aim to fill empty seats on the CSU’s council of representatives and have students vote on referendum questions. There is one seat to be filled for the Arts and Science Federation of Associations and one seat to be filled for the John Molson School of Business this year.
Concordia translation student Nouho Bamba says he’s not going to vote this November.
“I’m not too literate on elections,” he said. “Therefore, I don’t see the interest in voting.”
CSU chief electoral officer Callum Ellis-Mennie feels that students often view the CSU’s by-elections as less important than the general elections held in the winter semester because executives—those who oversee student programs and keep the administration accountable—aren’t on the ballot.
This, Ellis-Mennie says, leads to student detachment.
“Inherently, [student] engagement is going to be lower with the by-elections,” he said. “It’s generally a disconnect from the school community for a big proportion of students. It doesn’t strike them as having that much of an impact on their student lives.”
Ellis-Mennie thinks that although the by-elections are less crucial to the CSU than the general elections, they’re still very important.
“[Students] still are deciding the shape of the CSU,” he said. “[The council] is doing a lot of the decision making.”
Concordia software engineering student Addy Lakehal believes the CSU needs to improve its outreach to attract more voters. He says increasing both in-person and online engagement could help appeal to a wider range of students.
“Actually listening to the students, doing physical interactions, public interventions, then the public can at least voice themselves,” Lakehal said. “Also, being more online would help because we’re in the digital age.”
CSU general coordinator Vanessa Massot agrees with Lakehal, sharing that Arevig Nahabedian, the union’s student life coordinator, has some “big plans” in the works. Massot says the CSU intends to increase its social media content while also increasing in-person interactions to better engage students.
For Massot, direct communication with students may be the most effective way to combat voting apathy.
“Speaking to someone, you can actually have that connection,” they said. “To me, one of the most important parts of the university is that [kind of] community.”
This article originally appeared in Volume 46, Issue 5, published November 4, 2025.
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