Low voter turnout only the tip of the iceberg
Samantha Osaduke
Staff Writer
After a delayed election, incidents of vandalism, and delayed results, the Glendon campus elections have finally come to a close.
From November 14 to November 17, the Glendon College Student Union (GCSU) held fall elections, but the student body at Glendon appeared to be less than responsive.
Despite the heavy reliance on social media such as Twitter and Facebook to spread word about the election campaigns, Glendon experienced a low voter turnout with only 17 per cent of students voting.
In addition, the Glendon debates—which took place October 27 in the cafeteria—failed to draw a large crowd.
According to Tamaisha Etyle, Glendon’s Chief Returning Officer (CRO) who presides over the election as mediator, the debate at Glendon was held at a cafeteria with a capacity of 200 students. Etyle says the debate drew between 20 to 30 audience members.
As for the actual voting schedule, the voting was originally scheduled to occur from November 2 to November 4. However, the date change “occurred due to a mishap with the Registrar’s Office and the Student Community & Leadership Development (SC&LD),” says Etyle.
Etyle says Glendon also experienced problems with slander and vandalism throughout the election period.
“There was also a matter of homophobic vandalism against a particular candidate,” she says. “We investigated the situation but could not make any conclusive results. The student body was made aware of the serious repercussions and violations caused by vandalism and slandering candidates.”
On Friday, November 25 after a delayed response, Glendon heard back from York about election results.
Excalibur extensively attempted to contact election candidates for comment, but did not hear back from any party as of publication.
