It’s known as “the gauntlet” — a stretch of sidewalk on Utah State University’s campus where candidates for student government will attempt to gain support from potential voters.
Starting Monday, candidates will position themselves and their posters along this path with a goal of winning voter support.
But the result of the candidates’ efforts may be decided before they have even begun. At the point in which candidates are permitted to campaign, students will already be voting in the ASUSU primary elections.
Open campaigning is limited to election week only. The day that elections start may be the first time many students meet the candidates who might represent them.
Some students think the limited time for campaigning keeps the students from getting the necessary information to make an educated vote.
“Our national elections start a year in advance to campaign but our students have three-and-a-half days. It is a popularity vote,” said candidate Christian Orr. “As a general blanket statement, students at USU are apathetic in that they won’t educate themselves on election issues. This is evidenced by how many vote.”
Fear of not being known by voters is common among candidates.
"I think honestly that is not much time to let people know what you're running on, your platform and goals. Just four days is kind of a short amount of time for a year’s worth of work," said Trent Morrison, senatorial candidate from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Students have mixed feelings about the short amount of time for campaigning.
“Students only see one week when in reality we have been working for months. So if elections went longer than a week, the preparation for it would be ridiculous,” said student Paislie Hill. “On the downside, there is no way you can talk to every student on campus, not to mention how so many try to avoid the gauntlet.”
In the past, campaigning has been longer.
“I think it’s great. It used to be almost two and a half weeks long. I was a campaign manager and I hated it. It was so long and you were so tired by the end of it, and you miss class. I would rather have it short and sweet,” said Kellen Hansen, who is running this year for programming vice president.
The elections committee had reasons for reducing the time.
“It’s mostly consideration for the student body at large,” said Kirsten Frank, the current executive vice president. “I think that if campaigns were to drag on for weeks, months or whatever else, it would be kind of tedious for all the students, who we want this to be a positive experience for.”
“We want students in the general population that even aren’t necessarily involved to have a good experience with elections to learn more about the candidates and the university as well,” she said.
Frank said she wants students to have a good impression of the candidates, the campaign process and the university. She said she wants to keep it short and free of problems.
“We want it to remain a positive experience.”
Matt Skabelund, Katie Carter, Parker Jeppesen, Julia Stock, Jessica Jolley, Adison Pace and Victoria Hepworth contributed to this report.
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