MSA winter elections to kick off today

For weeks, colorful posters have announced the coming of the Michigan Student Assembly's annual presidential and vice presidential election.

But today marks the first day of the assembly's major election - a campaign-intensive day during which students will be able to put faces with the names they see on posters.

This year, four slates are vying for the opportunity to lead the assembly in its two top spots this coming year.

Students' Party vice presidential candidate Sarah Chopp, who currently holds an LSA seat on the assembly, said she will use today and tomorrow to encourage all students to exercise their voting powers.

"Even if I lose, if 25 percent (of the student population) goes out to vote, I'll feel like I won," said Chopp, an LSA first-year student.

Voter turnout for last year's presidential election totaled 15 percent of students, which was higher than turnout in past years.

Chopp, who is running alongside Students' Party presidential candidate Trent Thompson, said the long hours of campaigning will be spent connecting with students.

Just like Chopp and most other candidates, independent presidential candidate Ferris Hussein, an LSA junior, said he and his runningmate, Nick Pavlis, have a packed schedule planned for the election's duration.

"Our goal is to mobilize people who haven't voted in the past," Hussein said, identifying that group as largely juniors and seniors who have been turned off by past MSA actions.

Hussein added that he and the students allied with him are taking advantage of a St. Patrick's Day party that his fraternity house is hosting to distribute information about their platform.

LSA sophomore Albert Garcia, another independent vice presidential candidate, said he and runningmate Ryan Friedrichs plan to campaign at Greek houses while going door-to-door throughout student neighborhoods, as well as covering on-campus voting sites.

"My favorite part of the whole campaign is actually getting out there and meeting new people," said Garcia, who currently serves as the Academic Affairs Committee chair of the LSA Student Government. "I think students appreciate when we take the time to talk to them and to answer their questions and understand where they're coming from."

Although most students on the ballot will be busy campaigning today and tomorrow, some candidates conceded that most of the legwork that goes into a campaign has already been done.

"I guess, to be honest, I think these last couple of days aren't the most crucial," said New Frontier Party presidential candidate Elizabeth Keslacy, an LSA sophomore.

During the past week, Keslacy said that she, runningmate Mike Enright and other New Frontier Party members have passed out a variety of flyers to students outlining the party's main points.

MSA Election Director Rajeshri Gandhi, an Education senior, said she hopes voter turnout will increase from last year's percentage.

"I would really love to see it at 30 percent," Gandhi said.

Many factors should make this year's election more successful in terms of numbers, Gandhi said, including online voting, mass e-mails encouraging voting and the fact that students can see how the issues of this election directly affect them.

03-18-98