Autumn Elections struggle to recover pre-Covid turnout rates
In spite of recent democracy changes, 15.1% turnout is second-lowest since pandemic drop.
The Autumn Elections saw a slight decrease in turnout, with 15.1% eligible students voting, down from 15.9% last year.
The elections, which closed Thursday 23rd October, allow students to elect their peers in positions such as society committee roles, officers for marginalised student groups, or course academic and wellbeing representatives.
Turnout peaked in 2019 at 34.3%, before slumping in 2020, as universities were disrupted by the Covid pandemic, and never recovered, hovering between 15% and 17% since 2021.
In its recent democracy review, the Imperial College Union recognised the necessity to reform its election cycles, in the face of low turnout and engagement.
“Three election cycles create additional confusion for student leaders and returning officers, and cause election fatigue amongst the wider student body,” the paper reads. “Only 17% of students surveyed in Imperial’s Student Experience Survey strongly agree that elections are accessible and inclusive.”
The main areas of improvement that had been outlined to address these shortcomings were the removal of the Summer Elections cycle for leadership positions (although this remains in place for society committees), the introduction of by-elections for positions that remain unelected, improving organisational transparency, and the simplification of committee structures.
A representative for the Union said, “While turnout is slightly lower than last year, we’re grateful to all who took the time to put themselves forward and run in the election – we had higher attendance at our candidate briefings this year than last year – and to those who voted. We’re confident a great group of representatives have been elected who are going to make a meaningful difference for the students they represent this year.
“There are lots of reasons turnout could have been lower, for example some departments administered their elections locally, so these voters won’t be part of the overall turnout figures. However, ensuring elections are more accessible and inclusive is clearly a key priority to encourage more students to run and vote.”
