ASMSU elections underway

It’s that time of year again: the yard signs are out and campaigns for Associated Students of Montana State University (ASMSU) elections are underway.

For those who may be unfamiliar, ASMSU is the student-run government on campus that consists of an executive team, a student senate, and a supreme court. Students are encouraged to vote for an executive team and senators to represent their college or run for public office if they so choose.

Each college on campus is represented by student senators, said ASMSU President Lucas Oelkers. The number of senators is proportional to the size of the college they represent. For example, the College of Arts and Architecture currently has one senator, while the College of Letters and Science currently has four.

The filing applications for both the executive teams and senators opened in early March, said Kelly Wilcox, the ASMSU Elections Director. The executive team applications closed on April 4 and the senator applications close on April 18. Students can apply online through CatsConnect.

Once your application is admitted and approved, you or your team can start campaigning. Before you officially start, however, you must establish a campaign budget — half of which will be reimbursed by ASMSU, said Oelkers. The limit is $500 to maintain a low barrier of entry, he said.

The yard signs you may have seen around campus for executive teams are popular uses of campaign funding.

Primary debates will be scheduled sometime within the next two weeks, Wilcox said, but are not yet scheduled since only two executive tickets have been filed so far. At least three tickets need to be filed so that a primary debate and election can knock them down to two teams, she said.

According to ASMSU’s Election Policy, a primary election will be held for executive candidates if more than two tickets have been filed and are eligible for candidacy, and there will be no primary election for senators. The general election is set up in a similar fashion but will include senators and executive candidates on the voting tickets. Both debates will be held in the Union Market in the SUB, Wilcox said.

The ASMSU Supreme Court, elections director, and the president of ASMSU contribute to forming the debate questions, which center around current campus issues, Oelkers said.

Wilcox predicted that the main issue of focus for this year’s elections will be security on campus, including lighting. “I know lack of lighting has been talked about on a couple of platforms,” she said.

Elections will be held on April 25 and 26, with voting booths set up on Centennial Mall and either in the ASMSU office or the Union Market in the SUB. This is a switch from last year’s strategy, which allowed students to vote online through a voting portal.

Wilcox thinks that because there will be physical voting booths out where people can see them, the voter turnout might be greater. “It should be a little bit more efficient this year,” she said.

A lot of students know what ASMSU is in the sense that they’ve probably engaged in their events or services, like Rail Jam or Battle of the Bands, Oelkers said. However, few know about student government itself.

“We have to remember that voting isn’t the only form of engagement with ASMSU,” Oelkers said. “The more that we have on the service side of things, the higher our voter turnout rates are.”

Oelkers encourages any students who are thinking about running to just go out there and do it. “If you want to make any change at the university, this is the place to do it,” he said. “We’re the formal voice of the student body towards the administration.”

“I would urge students to run, I think it’s a unique opportunity that not a lot of people know that they can utilize,” Wilcox said.

If you have questions about running for either the executive team or senate or how to apply to campaign, stop in to the ASMSU office in the SUB, located down the hall from the SRO coffee shop, or visit their website at https://www.montana.edu/engagement/campus-programs-events/Elections.html.