“What elections?” Alissa Grell, an undeclared freshman, says. “I don’t know any of the people, and I would never vote for someone I don’t know.”

Or how about this one.

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

Better yet.

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

These ridiculously ill-informed freshmen are talking about the Government of the Student Body elections, which start today and run through Wednesday.

Underclassmen quoted in the article “Many ISU students apathetic about GSB election” on the front page of today’s Daily blame everyone from the candidates themselves to the whole GSB system for their lack of knowledge.

They blame everyone, it seems, but themselves.

If these students had been paying even a little bit of attention during the past two weeks, they would have ample information at their fingertips for voting in the elections.

Yes, GSB does need to do more to increase its visibility around campus. The senators and executives must realize that students aren’t ever going to come to them — they have to go to the students.

But there is only so much GSB can do.

Candidates for GSB president and vice president have done everything from handing out T-shirts to visiting house meetings. They’ve distributed buttons, held town forums, constructed Web sites and participated in televised debates.

And you still don’t know who they are?

The Daily, your friendly campus newspaper, has run an in-depth profile of each of the candidate slates on the front page. We’ve given you lists of polling times and places. We’ve even told you who we think you should vote for.

And you still don’t want to vote?

Not to sound like your mother, but what is the matter with you?

Maybe you don’t think politics is important. Maybe you don’t care about national presidential campaigns, and maybe the state of the nation means nothing to you.

Fine. I’ll let that go, for now. But the election for GSB president and senators is actually an important one — one of the most important elections you’ll see during your college years.

And here’s why. The Government of the Student Body doles out more than $1.2 million to various student groups each year. That $1.2 million is your money that you pay in student fees.

Let me repeat that. The GSB decides how to spend an obscene amount of your money.

And you don’t care which students are going to be making those decisions?

It’s not always easy to get involved on campus. You have to sacrifice a considerable amount of time and energy, and you have to be willing to take all kinds of criticism — from other students, from administrators, you name it.

You have to give up a lot, and it’s understandable that not many students on this lazy campus want to do that.

But voting in the GSB elections takes no sacrifice, no hard work — almost no effort at all.

Here’s all you have to do:

1. Take five minutes and read about the executive candidates.

Go to the Daily’s Web site (www.daily.iastate.edu) and click on GSB Candidate Profiles to read stories about the four slates. The articles outline exactly what the candidates stand for, and after reading them, you should be able to pick at least one slate that fits your world view.

2. Take five minutes and read about the senatorial candidates.

Go to the candidate profiles page on the GSB Web site (www.gsb.iastate.edu/ GSBEC/echome.htm) and read the bios of all the candidates in your particular categories.

3. Take another five minutes and walk to the polling place nearest you.

This is the last step and arguably the easiest. There are polling places all over campus. They’re listed on the front of the Daily, and you can easily swing by one on the way home from class. Just bring your fee card and ID with you, check off on the candidates you like best, and you’ll have done your civic duty.

The students quoted in the article on the front page today were all underclassmen. Maybe they just haven’t figured out yet how important GSB is.

But it is ridiculous to place the blame on anyone else when it could not be easier to find out what’s going on in these elections.

You have more than enough information. All you have to do is use it.

We’ve done our part. Now do yours.

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Sara Ziegler is a senior in journalism and political science from Sioux Falls, S.D. She is editor in chief of the Daily. She apologizes to the freshmen she quoted, but come on, guys.