As the second day of elections wraps up today at 5 p.m., candidates are pulling out every trick in their bag to sway voters. But even as chalk campaigning covers the ground in front of many major buildings on campus and last minute campaign posters are finding their way onto Blitz terminal desktops, general apathy toward the election remains widespread.
In an ad hoc poll sampling more than 50 students conducted yesterday afternoon, over a third said that they had not yet voted and did not plan to vote. That number is greater than the number of students who had already voted and the number of students who had not yet voted, but said they intended to.
Despite the apparently low turnout as of yesterday afternoon, candidates have not slowed in their campaigning.
Student Assembly vice-presidential candidate Noah Riner '06 has turned the campus's sidewalks into giant campaign posters with colorful decorations urging any passerby to "Vote Noah."
In various high traffic locations such as Thayer, the Hop and Novack yesterday afternoon and evening supporters of Dave Wolkoff '05, who is running for SA VP, patrolled clad in pro-Wolkoff poster-boards. The signs urged students who had not yet voted to "Vote Wolkoff here" and laptop computers were provided for anyone who wanted to take them up on their offer.
In a one-hour stint yesterday afternoon in Thayer, one such supporter, Jesse Roisin '05, said he had convinced two students to take the time to vote using his laptop, and had secured commitments to vote for his candidate by at least 10 more.
"I let a lot of people check blitz," Roisin said. "Wanna cut in line courtesy of Wolkoff?" he asked students held up in the line for a blitz terminal.
While campaign posters have adorned every announcement board in every dorm across campus, Wolkoff has taken his advertising one step further. Multiple campus Blitzmail terminals, including those in Thayer feature Wolkoff standing in front of a Homecoming bonfire with all four class numbers -- '06 through '03 -- urging the biltzers to "Vote Wolkoff."