Poll fails to predict results
Submitted by
Marta Pascual Caballero
A poll of 40 students taken after the presidential debate last Wednesday in the Student Activity Center failed to predict the winner of the SGA presidential election.
Only 40 out of 99 students who attended the debate took part in the poll, but SGA’s President-elect, Evan Karanovich, lost the poll with only 36 percent of the vote. The poll was conducted by a representative of the American Democracy Project and results posted on the SGA Presidental Debate 2011 Facebook event.
Around 35 percent of students voted in the general election. It was a 15 percent increase in student participation compared to the elections in 2009.
“I really was very impressed,” Karanovich said. “A lot of people have judged elections in general as a popularity contest and Georgia College took this as an opportunity.”
This increased interest in SGA elections was reflected two days before the vote in the crowded debate room. At the beginning of the event, almost every chair was occupied, and those who arrived late found it standing room only.
The debate was structured in three rounds. In the first round, the candidates had to respond in 60 seconds to questions made by the moderators and school media representatives.
In the second round each candidate asked his opponent specific questions. On one side, runner-up Andrew Whittaker asked Karanovich if his involvement in numerous student organizations will take away from the time he’ll need to run SGA. On the other side, Karanovich asked his opponent if the electorate should think of him as indecisive, since reneged on his promise not to run for SGA president.
The third round of the debate allowed candidates to answer students’ questions.
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