As of Tuesday, there has not been a single executive ticket application submitted for Undergraduate Student Government Tempe, and only seven senate applications have been turned in with less than a week until the deadline.
In a USGT senate meeting Tuesday, Joshua Valenzuela, Associated Students of ASU assistant elections commissioner for Tempe, said at the moment, there would be zero competitive senate elections for many schools, as there were more seats up for grabs than there were candidates running.
The senate, which has 21 seats representing nine colleges, had 38 candidates run during last year's elections.
"If this were earlier on I wouldn't be worried," Valenzuela said. "We desperately need every single one of you to spread the word as much as possible."
Unless several of the Tempe campus-based schools see an increase in applications in the coming days, their student bodies will not be adequately represented, and the current senators may not have successors.
"As of right now, we simply do not have enough people to build an undergraduate student government," Valenzuela said. "To be at only seven (applications) this late in the game is extremely concerning."
But ASASU assistant director Elizabeth Rosenkrantz said she isn't too concerned about the apparent lack of candidate turnout.
"(The candidates) have their tickets, and they will submit them at the end," Rosenkrantz said.
Although Valenzuela was not in his position last year, he believes at least one executive ticket was submitted with less than one week to go before the 2020 deadline.
"The executive ticket is a bit more complex. It's a harder thing to do (than the senate ticket)," Valenzuela said. "Maybe there is someone who is crazy enough to do it in the last six days."
Three executive tickets were on the ballot last year, each including a candidate for student body president, vice president of services and vice president of policy.
During last year's USGT election, after advancing to a run-off, presidential candidate Max Fees, along with vice presidential candidates Emma Short and Jack Fuller, won the USGT executive race receiving 54.16% of the vote. But the ticket was later disqualified due to violations of the University's elections code.
As a result, Jacqueline Palmer was made USGT president, alongside vice president of services Joshua Freid and vice president of policy Kajol Kapadia.
Three senate races in 2020 did not feature any candidates. The College of Health Solutions, College of Integrative Sciences & Arts and School for the Future of Innovation in Society all had one seat up for grabs, but no one to fill them.
Rosenkrantz strongly encouraged candidates to submit their tickets before the Feb. 22 deadline.
"Normally we have some competition at some of our larger colleges," Rosenkrantz said. "I love to see some healthy competition ... Please submit."
Reach the reporter at bokeeffe@asu.eduand follow @BrendanKOKeeffe on Twitter.
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