UOSA elections are right around the corner and it appears that there is increased interest in Student Congress elections this fall. Usually the fall elections have lower interest and lower turnout than the spring elections and this is for many reasons. The spring election has many more offices up for election. Primary among them are the UOSA president and vice president. While the election for president and vice president receives a great deal of attention, much more than Student Congress elections, this extra attention is probably warranted. The UOSA presidential election, like the U.S. presidential election, is a media show with a laser focus that tends to ignore the other races that are also going on at the time. While people usually don't heavily campaign for Student Congress seats, student voters should take their representatives as seriously as student government warrants. In every campaign season, students should try to take whatever level of government they vote on seriously. To that end, I offer a voter's guide to informed voting in student government elections.

To begin with, one should always find out what the duties and requirements are of the various positions up for election. Student government really should supply the student voters with more than just a name on a ballot. I've had numerous students mention to me that they had no clue what the Commuter Student Association president actually does. Student government and the administrative governmental organizations like Commuter Student Association and Housing Center Student Association need to use their Web pages to inform students about their positions. Why not also include an informational section on the Sooner Information Network election page, where students vote for student government and other positions? The first step to making any elected position legitimate in the eyes of the voters is to give them as much information as possible on what the position entails.

Candidates should also take the positions they are running for seriously. If a candidate refers to the position they are running for as a "modest job," one can be certain that he or she is not taking their job seriously. If a person is not taking their job seriously as a candidate, then you can be certain they probably won't take their job seriously once elected. Once again, you should temper your decision by thinking about the relative importance of the level of government. If you're voting in a student election, you shouldn't expect the same level of seriousness as you would if you were voting in a state election. At any level, however, you should demand the appropriate level of dedication and seriousness.

After you've figured out what the position is all about, you should take a look at the field of candidates. For the most part in Student Congress elections there will be little to no campaigning. Frequently if a candidate campaigns any at all they are virtually assured of victory since elections are all about name recognition. As student voters, you should at least try to figure out who is who on the ballot. Once again SIN has done a good job of giving candidates at least one direct access point to voters in the form of the candidate statements on the elections Web page. Usually this will be all you know about a candidate, so candidates need to utilize this opportunity. Deciding who to vote for on any level can be difficult, but actually paying attention to platforms and getting to know the candidates are the only ways to make an informed decision.

Now these pointers on how to vote in a student election are certainly idealistic. I know that most of you who started reading this column have turned over to the crossword by this point because we know that most voters at any level rarely think about voting at all, let alone informed voting. Building informed voters at the student level is the only way to improve the knowledge of the voting electorate at large. Students need to practice informed voting and political participation at the student government level if for no other reason than it is good practice for when they vote in local, state, and national elections. To encourage students to become informed voters, student government needs to make it as easy as possible for students to get information about how student government works, what the elected positions do, and what student leaders do once in office. The involvement of SIN and online elections was a giant step forward to accomplishing this goal, but student government needs to step up and do more. Updating Web pages is just a beginning, but I'm still disappointed that neither Congress nor the UOSA executive branch have done any work on their Web pages to give students more information. Informed voters are needed to make government work at any level. We need to start at the student government level if we want students to make a difference as voters in other elections.
hello there & you too