The Government of the Student Body Election Commission and the candidates vying for GSB senate and executive positions have stressed the importance of increasing voter turnout at this year’s elections.

Last year, the GSB elections drew only 6 percent of ISU students to the polls. However, despite the work of this year’s Election Commission and candidates, some underclassmen are still not planning to cast their vote.

“What elections?” asked Alissa Grell, undeclared freshman. “I don’t know any of the people, and I would never vote for someone I don’t know. I think there are a bunch of people on this campus who don’t even know what GSB is.”

Brent Schrader, sophomore in civil engineering, said he doesn’t read the newspaper and knows nothing about the election.

“I don’t really know where to go or anything about the candidates,” he said.

Many students said they didn’t know what GSB is, let alone who is running.

“I don’t even know what I’m voting for,” said Shannon McCauley, freshman in exercise and sport science. “I know it is for president, but president of what?”

Some students said they don’t know enough about the candidates to feel comfortable voting.

“I’m not going to vote because … I am so uninformed that I am not going to make a decision without some information,” said Andy Collmann, freshman in pre-business. “I want to see what the candidates are going to do for us.”

Other students said the candidates did not make enough of an effort to reach out to the student body.

“I don’t really care,” said Josh Anderson, sophomore in pre-business. “I don’t think the candidates got real personal with the students. They just put up table tents and hoped enough students remember their names.”

Other students said the vote won’t make a difference.

“No matter who is in there, nothing is going to change,” said Josh Frandsen, freshman in pre-business. “It’s like a popularity contest.”

Finally, some students said they simply did not care about the elections.

“I don’t really care, frankly,” said McCauley. “The only thing they do is get a parking spot where I want to park.”

The elections start today and will be held until Wednesday.