Recently, the second candidate running for president of Gannon University’s Student Government Association dropped his race, leaving everyone running in SGA’s elections unopposed.

More than likely, the candidates running will automatically be elected to office, but the voting portion of the elections will remain intact.

You may be thinking at this point that your vote doesn’t matter since no candidate is running against anyone, but that should not be the mindset of the voter, i.e. the rest of the student body.

If nobody votes, how can SGA know the candidates who ran were the candidates the students wanted in office to be the voice of the people?

Whether everybody votes for the candidates or nobody votes shows a significant difference in how the students feel about the upcoming executive board.

If one person wins because they got two votes but 100 other people had one write-in vote, that definitely says something.

Maybe 100 is a bit of an exaggeration, but even 10 other people receiving one vote would make a statement.

Likewise, if the candidate running receives 100 votes and only one candidate receives a write-in vote, it’s pretty obvious that the student body was partial to the person running.

In a nutshell, voting is your way to show SGA who you want to be in charge and making decisions next year.

Sure the outcome of the elections may be the same whether one person votes for all of the candidates or 100 people vote for all of the candidates, but with the latter situation, the student voice is heard.

And isn’t that what the point of SGA is: to be the voice of the people?