The Daily Californian ELECTION RESULTS

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Examining
the

electorate

By Sahil Chinoy
and Chloee Weiner
newsdesk@dailycal.org
In the climax of last weeks
ASUC tabulations ceremony in
Wheeler Auditorium, deafening
cheers erupted from one side of
the room as CalSERVE swept all
four partisan executive seats for
the first time since 2008.
The other side of the room,
filled with Student Action supporters, celebrated its seven senators-elect but was noticeably
quieter. Though the party ran
candidates for all but one par-

tisan executive position, none

were elected.
In a political system in which
about one-fourth of the electorate changes yearly, public opinion can be unpredictable, and
party lines often shift from year
to year. Its not clear how each of
the approximately 12,000 voters in this years election came to
his or her final decision, though
students often echo popularly
held ideas: Enough Facebook
likes guarantee a spot in the senate, Student Action relies on the
Greek system for support, and
CalSERVEs platforms arent
tangible enough for some stu-

dents.
As ballots were cast earlier
this month, The Daily Californian conducted its first voter
survey to better understand the
motives and patterns behind
voting behavior. The Daily Cal
asked respondents to answer
questions about candidates and
campus issues, using demographic information to examine
which of the popular speculations are based in fact.
More than 600 students
representing a wide range of
campus constituencies took the
survey. Below are some of the
findings.

Mixed feelings
Rank the following campus issues in order of which you find most pressing.
Tuition and fees

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

All

Academic experience

Male Female

Mental health

Sexual assault

Sustainability

East South His- Other

Student CalWhite Asian Asian panic race LGBTIQQA Action SERVE

Diversity

Greek Greek
males females

Crime

Divestment

Very Lib- Mod- Conserliberal eral erate vative

Tuition and fees and mental health were prioritized by all groups. Among the Greek community, sexual assault was ranked, on average, first by females and fifth by males. The importance of sexual assault also decreased uniformly with increasingly conservative political affiliation. All groups but one ranked divestment
as their lowest priority.

CHECK ONLINE:
If you want to see more graphs and data from the 2015 ASUC general
elections and read more about the results of the The Daily
Californians election survey, visit votersurvey.dailycal.org/2015.

ALAA ELSHAHAWI/STAFF