By: Elliott Williams
Despite weeks of campaigning and exposure, the Humber IGNITE elections was marred with a low voter turnout.
Only 7,059 of Humber students voted in the election, that is 23.46 per cent of the eligible full time students.
“We have to focus on reaching out [to] students,” IGNITE’s newly elected President, Maja Jocson, told Humber News.
“The best way to get students to vote is to… is to engage with them…. just listen to people I think students will appreciate it,” she says.
Nicholas Davenport was newly elected to Humber’s Board of Directors. Davenort argues that students were confused and that led to a low voter turnout.
“I feel that IGNITE isn’t established with Humber community as it should be, because the rebranding put a lot of confusion into students, so they are under the impression that there is an HSF [the old name for the student government].”
But former members of IGNITE insist the modest increase of voters is a promising sign.
”It’s encouraging to see the number of voters go up, it’s the most important thing by far. Making them [students] aware of this process and making them aware that voting is happening,” Ahmed Tahir, the outgoing IGNITE President, told Humber News.
“At the end of the day, what brings out the most votes is the candidates going out and talking to students,” Tahir added.
But compared to other colleges, Humber’s voter participation was much farther ahead. Vanier College and Glendon College, had 2.7% and 6.8% of students vote.