Who says Penn State students are completely apathetic?

When the votes in the Undergradute Student Government election were counted Wednesday night, the final voter turnout total was 7,226 -- higher than any other election turnout ever.

While having only 7,226 out of 40,000 students on campus vote isn't a massive turnout, it is a vast improvement over the previous years' totals. In 2000, voter turnout hit a record low, with only 3,905 students casting their ballots.

Last year's election was better, with a grand total of 5,674 voters.

It appears that a combination of online voting and internal turmoil within USG prompted students to want to cast their votes in the election.

In previous years, weather could make or break the election turnout.

Campaign commissioners explained that the incredibly low turnout in 2000 was attributed to the cold and rainy conditions on election day. With the advent of online voting in the election in 2001, students did not have to leave the comfort of home (or the computer labs) to influence the election -- they simply had to log on and click away.

This year was the first year in which strictly online voting was used, and the turnout skyrocketed. Congratulations to those who designed this system and those who implemented it this year.

Students may not want to go out of their way to vote manually, but voting electronically is simple and convenient.

Perhaps the frequent conflict between USG branches this year also contributed to the high turnout. While some students might not care or only saw the USG foibles as entertaining, some might have been fed up with the near-constant bickering and the introduction of partisan politics in student government.

For those who saw elements of student government that they did not like and voted in order to bring change to the institution, good job.

Hopefully, the 2002-2003 government will avoid this kind of pettiness.

This is one election in which every vote really does count. The final totals of this year's election showed that the second place campaign, Erik Ives and Matt Brezina, came within 290 votes of the winning campaign, Rubina Javeri and Kris Ankarlo. That is not a very big discrepancy.

We hope that this trend in higher voter turnout continues next year. If more students vote, USG will become increasingly representative of everyone on this campus.