We̢۪re not sure if you̢۪ve heard, but the elections for next year̢۪s Associated Students executives and senators occurred last week. Voting took place last Tuesday through last Thursday, and during the course of those three days, 494 student votes were cast, averaging about 166 votes each day.

While there are a few instances where 494 might qualify as a large number — say, the number of mouths to feed at a wedding — it is an absolutely dismal number when talking about an election for a group of people responsible for making decisions on behalf of the student body about how our funds should be allocated.

Indeed, in relation to the approximately 22,000 students currently enrolled at Fresno State, 494 voters comprise about 2.2 percent of the population of the school. This is a precipitous drop from last year̢۪s election turnout, which still drew only 1,398 voters (about 6.4 percent of the school).

Indeed, turnout was so bad that there were several candidates elected with fewer than 10 votes.

The poor turnout seems to be the result of several factors — there seemed to be a marked lack of campaigning this year as compared to previous elections. The number of candidates was also considerably less than in years past, with most candidates running unopposed. Taken together, these issues point to what may be the larger problem — student apathy, on all fronts.