April is the time for Associated Student Government elections at Bellevue College.
Voting will begin at 8 a.m. on April 22. Campaigning will continue until voting is complete on May 4 at 5 p.m. ASG has also put together a barbecue in order for students to meet the candidates.
ASG adviser Brandon Lueken explained, “the reason we have the barbeque is to let people meet candidates and candidates are there to talk to the constituents. It’s the first day of our voting and candidates can let the students know their platform.”
ASG will provide free burgers and hot dogs from the cafeteria. In addition, there will be three food trucks coming in with various types of food, including vegan, Mediterranean and Native American. Because 50 to 80 percent of voting happens on the first day, the barbeque allows students to get a more personal look at whom they are voting for.
Typically at BC, the rate of student voting goes down after the first day, and in order to combat that ASG has decided to hold debates in the middle of voting rather than before.
“We moved the debates to April 27 which is after the first day of voting in order to continue to encourage students to place their votes,” Lueken elaborated, “There have been times where there have been less that 10 votes deciding a candidate so really every vote does matter.”
Debates will be held on April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the cafeteria, and there will be predetermined questions as well as time for students viewing the debates to ask their own questions to the candidates.
BC is one of the only colleges in Washington that still elects their student government while most colleges hire them.
Currently, there are three vacant ASG positions, which are the Vice President of Legislative Affairs, the Justice of Internal Affairs and the Justice of External Affairs. In order to run for any positions, the candidate must hold a 2.7 GPA. For lower positions, candidates must have completed 12 college-level credits and those running for President or Vice President positions must complete 24 college-level credits.