Elections for the student government at El Camino College started Monday, April 28 and end Thursday, May 1 at 11:59 p.m.

The Associated Students Organization holds elections once every spring semester to fill cabinet and senate positions and pass constitutional amendments.

All ECC students enrolled in credit and non-credit classes can vote either in-person or online by logging into Engage with their student account information.

“We [ASO] gain our legitimacy from the students. If the students don’t vote — our legitimacy, it doesn’t exist — and it makes it harder to advocate for the students,” ASO Vice President Isaac Alpert, 19, said.

On May 1, in-person voting tents will be located at the Math, Business and Allied Health Building, the Student Services Plaza and the Schauerman Library Lawn from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“We have QR codes, we have iPads [students] can vote on, we try to make it as accessible as possible,” Alpert, a political science major, said.

There are 16 students running for ASO cabinet positions and 15 students running for senator positions.

Any student can vote for ASO cabinet position candidates, which includes the president, vice president, student trustee and seven director positions. Voting for senators is limited to the division which a student majors under.

Zaynah Robb, Joshua Arasheben and Charlie Mitchell are running unopposed for the cabinet positions of president, vice president and student trustee, respectively.

The only contested races are for director of public relations, with four candidates; director of finance, with three candidates; and director of academic affairs, with two candidates.

Write-in voting is also available, but names will not appear on the ballot unless the candidate receives at least 25 votes if running for a senator position, or 50 for a cabinet position.

“Write-in candidates is there to, you know, maybe someone didn’t find out about ASO until a week before elections and really wants to get involved,” Alpert said.

There are four constitutional amendments on the ballot, including requirement changes for the student trustee and director of finance positions, conflict of interest policy revisions and the removal of the Inter-Club Council from finance committee voting membership.

To pass, amendments must receive at least two-thirds of the students’ votes.

Alpert said that ASO members have more impact on the college administration and local officials when more students vote.

“[We] can actually say that students are engaged, they have these issues, and they want us to solve these issues,” Alpert said.

There were close to 300 but up to as many as 411 student votes cast in the last ASO election, depending on the race, according to the results.

The results represented about a 2% turnout of the 19,545 students enrolled at ECC in spring 2024, according to enrollment numbers from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Data Mart.

Alpert said ASO aims to double election turnout each year.

“This year, doubling it would require 600. I really hope to achieve that,” he said.

Alpert said efforts to increase turnout this year included extending the campaigning period, holding two candidate forum events instead of one, and adding an extra day of voting.

Results from the election will be posted Monday, May 5, on ASO’s website, Instagram and other channels.