One of the hardest things about writing these columns is keeping things under 725 words. As you might have guessed, our Student Government committed so many sins when it came to promoting elections, it’s worth a second column, so here we go.
I must say that many of these columns are very vain on my part: ‘Ha, ha, SG screwed up, here’s how they messed up,’ ‘I’m so great and smart.’ But that being said, you really were able to take a look at the pompous way Chomp the Vote and External Affairs went about trying to promote civic engagement in a now-deleted video.
The video they put out was very holier-than-thou, starting off with “being civically engaged isn’t hard at all. In fact, it’s easier than a lot of things here at the University of Florida.” They then talk about how registering to vote is easier than waiting in line at Starbucks, among other things. But at one point, they mention the dates for early voting (Oct. 27 - Nov. 3) which were noticeably different from the ones posted on the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections’ website (Oct. 22 - Nov. 3). Uh oh.
As it turned out, Chomp the Vote took the “minimum mandatory [early voting] period” of eight days from the Florida Division of Elections website, which means it omitted the fact that Alachua County had five additional early voting days. Weird flex, but ok.
I can understand if one might want the general statewide minimum dates since that would at least apply to every county, but even the state website says to check with the county for dates, so I feel like the video really skipped over important nuances.
So I pointed out the “error” and Chomp the Vote took the video down, an admission of wrongdoing in my eyes. Yikes.
In the video, SG also mentioned a competition with other universities to register voters, which we really haven’t heard about since, so my guess is that we didn’t do so well?
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the other video Chomp the Vote put out that didn’t have the required captions or a transcript (until I pointed it out).
Last week, I wrote about how SG mostly bumbled around in terms of trying to get an early voting site on campus. One part I didn’t get to write about due to my word limit was another date screwup on SG’s part.
So there I was, working my job on the Friday of Homecoming Weekend. Fear of missing out got the best of me, and I tuned in to the WUFT livestream of the parade. At one point, a reporter was interviewing the Student Body president and she asked him a question about early voting.
Time slowed, my pupils dilated; had it been raining and had my life been an anime, the scene would have cut to an outside shot with the raindrops slowing to a standstill. I still can’t say what compelled me to take out my phone and start audio recording, but perhaps I just have that little faith in SG officials.
“We have the early voting location at the Reitz Union, which actually ends this Monday at 6 p.m.,” said the Student Body president while hundreds of people watched online. Early voting ended that Saturday.
I screamed. My hair turned white. I sold my stocks. I ripped off my socks.
How can someone bold enough to try claiming credit for an early voting site not even know what day early voting ended? People get in serious trouble for these date screwups in the “real” world. There’s been no shortage of news articles about such situations in recent days.
Oh, and let’s not forget that Chomp the Vote’s social media went limp like a disappointing lover directly after the election, you know, during the chaos of trying to make sure all the absentee and provisional ballots were counted. Lazy? I dunno.
Why are the people telling us “being civically engaged isn’t hard at all” the same people who aren’t doing a good job? Boo.
Zachariah Chou is a UF political science junior and Murphree Area Senator. His column appears on Fridays.
Zachariah Chou is a UF political science junior and Murphree Area Senator. His column appears on Fridays.
