Class representative elections took place from October 2 to 5, seeing a turnout of over 2,750 votes across the multiple polling stations operated by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU).
This marks a 65% increase from voting in last year’s elections, in which 1667 votes were collected. Chair of the Electoral Commission Daniel Walsh told Trinity News that “it can be safely assumed that this year’s Class Representative Elections saw the highest level of turnout since at least 2019”.
In the first five hours over 800 votes were collected, an over 100% increase from the first day of recorded votes last year.
Offering incentives for voting in class representative elections is a reason cited for the high turnout this year. By voting in this year’s elections students were made eligible to win a reserved Trinity Ball ticket, with ten winners being selected.
When asked about the high turnout this year, TCDSU Engagement Officer James Carey said: “Informal information sessions held in the first two weeks of the semester, strong online publicity, and a particular focus on the elections at the Freshers’ Fair stand were all factors contributing to the success of this year’s elections.”
Voting was initially scheduled to begin on Wednesday, but was postponed to Thursday. In an Instagram post TCDSU explained that: “with such high engagement the labour and facilities required to facilitate these elections were pushed to their limits”. In response to this issue online voting was kept open from Thursday morning to Saturday evening.
In the same post TCDSU stated that a report and investigation about “how this occurred, as well as how it may be avoided in future elections” is being conducted by the Chair of the Electoral Commission.
Carey stated that “in light of the circumstances, allowing for the additional day of online voting was an important option for the union to provide.” He continued that he believes the high level of student engagement “would always have been reflected in a third day of voting, regardless of whether it took place online or in-person”.
Polling stations were open in the Arts Block, the Hamilton, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, D’Olier Street, and St. James’ and Tallaght Hospitals. The Arts Block hosted the highest number of votes,1104 votes, followed by the Hamilton with 837 votes. 612 votes were cast online.
This year, class representative training weekend was moved back to an off-campus location, Mount Wolseley in County Carlow, as opposed to last year’s training which was held on campus.
TCDSU president Jenny Maguire told Trinity News: “Off-campus training, when used correctly, is invaluable. Last year, the decision was made on a practical level to hold the training on campus as a money saving mechanism, and unfortunately, we saw a disappointing turn out as a result. It was thus recommended we return to off-campus training”.
