The students have spoken — but not nearly enough of them had something to say.

Results of the Government of the Student Body Constitution ratification election have been posted. Only 785 student voters turned out. The election was declared invalid.

To make a valid ratification election, 20 percent of the student body must vote, which is roughly 4,600 people. After the polls closed at 4 p.m. Friday, the actual turnout was about 17 percent of those needed. Slightly more than 3 percent of the Iowa State student body voted.

Nonetheless, GSB Constitutional Convention Chairman Jamey Hansen said there was a lot to be learned from the process. “We didn’t have any problems with the election; we just didn’t succeed in getting the turnout,” Hansen said. The final count listed 652 students in favor of the new constitution draft and 152 opposed. About 570 students voted in favor of keeping specialty seats on the Senate, and 209 voted against.

Hansen said the results are not surprising, but voters were not necessarily politically motivated.

“If people don’t know much about something, they’ll usually give you the benefit of the doubt and vote yes on it,” Hansen said.

Hansen said many students made comments when voting such as, “I was told to vote no on this,” or, “I was told to vote.”

He said there were noticeable trends in the voting. The ballots were grouped into packets according to where students voted. In every packet but one, Hansen said, students voted overwhelmingly in favor of both the constitution draft and specialty seats.

The packet of ballots from a recent meeting of the InterFraternity Council proved the exception. In that packet, the constitution was voted up 38-1, but the specialty seats were voted down overwhelmingly.

Mark Holm, president of the IFC, said he isn’t sure why most of the fraternity representatives voted the specialty seats down. He said the vote was “not representative of the greek system.”

Hansen said he is not sure what is next for the constitution, but after Monday, when the convention is dissolved, it is no longer his responsibility.

He would, however, like to see something done with it.

“What the convention was able to do is bring up a brand new constitution. We still have a broken constitution that has problems that cannot be fixed simply by amending the constitution,” Hansen said.

Hansen said next year’s GSB officials can do what they wish with the draft — making changes or bringing it to another vote.

He said he would prefer to see another vote of the student body go through various college councils if it were to happen again next year.

“Nobody really expected we would get the turnout we needed,” Hansen said.