On the heels of the Feb. 9 Louisiana presidential primary election, Student Government is coordinating a mock primary election to assess which candidates students support. Students can log on to their PAWS account beginning Thursday at 8 a.m. and click on “Student Services” to select their political affiliation and preferred candidate campaign. The ballot includes five Republican candidates and five Democratic candidates, and voting will remain open until Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. Louisiana’s closed primary party election is restricted to selection of the Republican or Democratic Party. But SG’s primary election allows a student to select party affiliation as Republican, Democrat, Independent, other or none. Additionally, this election is not limited to candidate selection based on party affiliation like the Louisiana primaries. The online mock caucus comes as an effort to increase student participation and general awareness of the political process during this presidential election year. Specifically, it benefits students unable to vote in their home primaries seeking involvement in the political process. The idea for the election developed in a partnership between the Student Senate’s Governmental Relations Committee and the executive branch. Sen. Drew Prestridge, chairman for the Governmental Relations Committee, created a Facebook.com group titled “LSU 2008 United States Presidential Primary” to promote the election. He said the Senate aims to educate students about the political process because he thinks lack of knowledge is the reason for candidates missing the student vote. Prestridge said compared to past elections, he has seen increased emphasis on candidate’s targeting the youth. “Our age group is a huge demographic, and we can have a major impact,” he said. The Facebook group has already attracted nearly 500 members and lists each candidate’s Web site and links to both CNN.com and FOXNews.com for interested students. But Prestridge acknowledged the online advocacy group does not serve as testimony to whether or not students will vote today. Student Senate Speaker Colorado Robertson said the Senate will announce results Feb. 7 prior to the state primaries. The results will provide interested political analysts and candidates the opportunity to evaluate results of a college demographic. “It is a good way to gage the atmosphere on campus,” Robertson said. “It would also be a fun fact to know – who do LSU students support?”
—-Contact Natalie Messina at [email protected]