by Simon
27. May 2010 23:20
Also, elections happened at my college. I took it rather seriously - in fact, probably a bit too seriously, but then democracy, and proper voting, and respect for the voting population matters to me. There was a lot mismanaged about this election, but I think what says it all to me is this:
Last year, 700 students turned out to vote. This year, at least 1200 did. That's awesome. But in Fall 2009, we had 29,709 students enrolled. I don't know if they're all eligible to vote, but let's assume that they are.
To figure out the percentage a number x is of y, you can use a pretty simple formula. 
. So, assuming those figures are accurate, and they were all eligible to vote (I couldn't find anything in the bylaws to say that they weren't), that gives us the equation 
. So, the voter turnout was 4.04%, assuming that's accurate. It may not be. But even so, out of almost 30,000 students who attend my community college, only 1200 of them voted. It's great that it's better than last year, but it shows that something needs to be done to improve student participation in these elections. And the math proves it.
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