Voting in campus elections is waste of time

By Charles Kuo

On the brink of undergraduate student elections, you may have
run into people all over campus urging you to vote. Very rarely,
however, do you find someone advocating the opposite. But there is
a strong case to be made for students not to vote.

Here are just a few reasons:

“¢bull;Training for the real world. College is supposed to get
you ready for the real world. You’re not going the vote in
the real election in November, so why vote in the student election
now?

“¢bull;Solidarity. Students must stand together in their apathy.
Voting would mean breaking from the rich UCLA spirit of
non-participation.

“¢bull;Too much effort; not enough payoff. In the time it takes
you to read up on the candidates and vote, you could have finished
the crossword puzzle. While you can get satisfaction from a
completed puzzle, the only instant gratification you receive from
voting is a lousy sticker.

“¢bull;Root for the winner. With student turnout rarely topping
25 percent, why argue for the losing side?

“¢bull;Tradition. Like the Midnight Brawl, er, Yell, and passing
out from drunkenness on your 21st birthday, not voting has become a
UCLA tradition. Let’s go for a single digit turnout this
year!

“¢bull;It really doesn’t matter. It’s not like
student government does anything important. Who cares about the
people who manage a measly couple hundred thousand dollars in
student programming funds? With the change machine broken all the
time, the Ackerman arcade cashier is the one with all the
power.

“¢bull;Training for the real world, part two. Someday, out in
the real world, you are going to pay for something that you have
absolutely no say in. If you actually vote, you’ll be less
prepared for that day.

“¢bull;A reason for liberals: Pat Buchanan votes. You
don’t want to be like him, do you?

“¢bull;A reason for conservatives: Hilary Clinton votes in every
election she can ““ and you definitely don’t want to be
anything like her.

“¢bull;A reason for everyone else: I heard George Lucas said Jar
Jar Binks is an astute political mind and a rabid voter.

“¢bull;They don’t care, so why should we? All the USAC
candidates really want is their picture in The Bruin. Anyone can
spend countless hours between school and student government working
to create and implement student programming and allocate funding to
dozens of student organizations.

“¢bull;Lack of access. Student government will always be
inaccessible. I tried a couple weeks ago to talk to the current
USAC external vice president. Man, what a hassle. I had to climb
two flights of stairs or brave a cranky elevator with a horrid tile
floor before I was able to spend a productive hour talking with an
open-minded officer about everything from the university police to
the current council’s over-fascination with protesting.

“¢bull;The money doesn’t matter. The average UCLA student
skews more to the wealthy side more now than ever before. That
being the case, the small amount of money in USAC fees students pay
every quarter doesn’t mean so much. Besides, there are more
pertinent monetary issues to fight against, like those
seven-and-a-half-minute per quarter parking meters.

Some may find many of the arguments I have presented to be
moronic and perhaps a bit troubling. To be honest, I think all of
the arguments I’ve presented are pretty dumb. What is
disturbing to me, though, is that I know many students will
not.