Last week was a perfect display of how some students don’t know how to vote.
It was my theory that students voted for candidates that would best represent the university and address it’s concerns, regardless of personal or professional relationships. I mean, that’s how I voted.
For example, my roommate ran for a SGA position, but that didn’t mean that I would automatically vote for her. I compared her platform with that of her opponent’s and after days of scrutinizing the platforms as well as the candidates, I decided which ticket would be most beneficial to FAMU and voted accordingly.
But then again, my theory was just that – a theory.
I thought I had heard it all last spring when a classmate told me she was voting for a particular candidate because she was “from down bottom,” but these ignorant views resurfaced and manifested themselves again this election.
I found by talking to fellow students that their reasons for campaigning and voting for a candidate were totally superficial and unimportant. A male classmate said he favored one Miss FAMU candidate over the others because she was pretty, while others endorsed and voted for candidates based on hopes and dreams of joining an organization, in which a candidate is a member.
Fraternity and sorority IG’s are the worst. Some (notice the word, some not all) of them are so busy flashing posters in front of voters’ faces and screaming at the top of their lungs, rather than explaining the candidates’ platforms and qualifications. It makes good sense, too, because most of them don’t even know the platforms.
The basis of their support is to “get in good” with the candidate and his frat brothers or her sorors in order to secure a nice spot on the next Greek line.
How can you persuade voters to support a candidate when your selfish agenda to get “on line” supercedes the real issues at hand?
Some campaign team members took it a step further. While I was walking to Tucker Hall, a group of “Marion J. Slaton for Mr. FAMU” supporters were happily chanting, “Hit the road Jack (in reference to Slaton’s opponent, Jermaine Jack) and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more…”
No offense to Slaton, but the behavior of some of the members of his campaign team were not only unattractive and childish, but defeated the purpose of campaigning. It seems as if some students focus more on slandering the candidate’s opponent, rather than supporting the candidate.
Now I see why voter turnout is always so low on this campus. Although our ancestors died in order for us to have the privilege to “rock the vote,” an empty, uneducated vote is just as bad as disenfranchisement itself.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many students who happen to have relationships with candidates. It’s ok to vote for them if you really feel that they would be the best people for the positions.
However, when your vote is based on where a candidate is from, ensuring that as many of your sorors or frat brothers are elected as possible, or other idiotic reasons, then your way of thinking is trifling and so are you.
Yeah, I said it, TRIFLING.
Naeemah Khabir, 19, is a junior magazine production student from Philadelphia. She serves as Deputy News Editor and can be reached at Naeemah518@aol.com.