On Sept. 23, the Cosumnes River College Student Senate and Clubs and Events Board will be looking for students to cast their votes in a special election and elect candidates to represent them for the rest of the year. The election is set to fill positions left empty after the Spring 2014 election.

With the spring 2014 election showing extremely low voter turnout and a lack of follow through on the part of potential candidates, only two of the 40-some-odd positions available were filled.

“I don’t think the unsuccessfulness was an unsuccessfulness if that makes sense,’’ said Student Senate President Katelynn Rodriguez. “It’s more of a low involvement in not even our campus, but our district just for the simple fact that people do not really care about on campus since it’s a community college, but we are working to change that.”

Rodriguez said that, districtwide, less than 5 percent of students voted in elections last semester.

Another problem was that candidates did not turn in the required paperwork on time to run, Rodriguez said.

For the special election, potential candidates paperwork was due by Sept. 11, and the names of candidates will be released to the public soon.

Getting the most voters possible is an important factor in any election and Rodriguez said there are potential strategies to get student involvement up.

“I’m looking at putting other things on the ballot that are not necessarily the regular ‘who’s going to run campus and who isn’t,’” Rodriguez said.

Since said strategy is still in the approval stages, Rodriguez was not at liberty to go into more detail about what else voters may be seeing on the ballot.

Clubs and Events Board Commissioner Malcolm Nash said that getting votes is the responsibility of the candidate.

“This coming election we’re still going to be doing online [voting], however it’s a determining factor based on people running and how well they promote which will determine how many votes they’ll get,” Nash said.

While the election is heavily publicized, many students still aren’t interested.

“I just am absorbed in my own thing … but I see a lot of flyers,” said Brie Macgill a 30-year-old art major.

ASCRC puts on numerous events on campus and represents the student body off campus as well. Most recently, they sponsored the club rush days in the quad.

Bobbie Bray, 20, a business major said that she voted in the previous election.

“I think that students should participate with what’s going on on campus,” Bray said.

Nash said that if the special election does not fill the boards, they will take on the not-so-unfamiliar task of running the boards with however many members they do have.

“What we’re going to do is do what we’ve been doing for the past few years,” Nash said.  “Numbers haven’t been the greatest factor for Student Senate and Clubs and Events Board, however it’s more about the quality of the person in the office than quantity, but quantity is always helpful.”

On Sept. 17, ASCRC is hosting a candidate forum where students can interact with their potential representatives and on Sept. 25 students voted into office will take their oath.

For more information about candidates, ASCRC or information on election events stay tuned to the ASCRC page on CRC’s website: https://www.crc.losrios.edu/services/studentlife/student_association