UCSB Associated Students Spring Election Closes After Struggle to Engage Student Body 

UC Santa Barbara’s 2025 Associated Students (AS) Spring General Election finally concluded on May 15 with 4,376 undergraduate students casting a vote—representing just 20.42 percent of the student body. The election closed after a two-time deadline extension due to lower turnout percentages, making it one of the worst voting periods of the past decade. 

 

“There really is a huge, huge gap between AS and the student body,” said former Internal Vice President Sohum Kalia, who served three years in the student body government. “And I spent three years trying to figure out why that is.” 

 

Despite active emails, social media posts and advocacy, the AS program struggled to engage the student body, an issue that has become increasingly common post pandemic. 

 

Election approval requires a 20 percent voter minimum. By the initial deadline of May 9, only 17 percent of the student body had voted. The AS Election board extended it with hopes to engage more students.

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“Almost every candidate was running unopposed,” said Kalia. “This leads to less engagement than there already is because there’s zero competition between candidates.” 

 

However, this year's election period also faced early disruption after the AS Judicial Council suspended elections due to interference allegations in April. The AS Attorney General petitioned three separate cases against two Senators—Enri Lala and Dan Siddiqui—and Internal Vice President Açucar Pinto. 

 

All three recipients were found guilty by the Judicial Council of violating AS Election Code. Violations included engaging in or witnessing election-related misconduct, including allowance of late election candidates, abuse of power and unjust persuasion efforts—all contributing to election interference and affecting the candidates’ eligibility to run in the Spring Election.

 

This was significant for IVP candidate Dan Siddiqui, as all votes for him would stop from being counted despite being on the ballot. 

 

During the time of these cases, the AS Elections Board was forced to suspend both the initial Candidate Forum as well as the beginning of the AS Elections. 

 

“With significant delays in the election schedule, we infer that the low voter turnout is due to confusion among many voters,” said the Chair of the Elections Board Ruby Hewitt.

 

This is an issue the AS Board is aiming to diminish in the future.

 

“We need to notice patterns in legal violations and the gaps in legal code,” said Hewitt. “This will shed light on how similar issues should be handled in the future and establish a nature of collaboration between the Judicial Council and the Elections Board.” 

 

The final election results were announced on May 16. They included the unopposed Presidential candidate Le Anh Metzger as the 2025 winner. Alongside Metzger was Enri Lala for Internal Vice President, E.J. Raad for External Vice President (EVP) of Local Affairs and Leiya Kadah for EVP of Statewide Affairs. All candidates ran against no more than one person—and in some cases against themselves. 

 

On-campus organizations—including essential services like the AS Food Bank, Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS) and Student Health—had their funding measures successfully reaffirmed with high approval rates. Of the four new increased fee proposals on the ballot, the Food Bank fee was the only approved organization. 

 

Additionally, all proposed constitutional amendments passed with high percentage votes. Notably, the Representative Party Act—a proposal to restore the party system—was approved with a 90% vote in favor. 

 

While voting was eventually brought to a close, AS leaders and voting organizers wonder how this disengagement crisis on campus can be tackled for future elections. 

 

“I think students are busy and don’t understand the importance of the elections,” said Hewitt. “When we explain to students what AS is in charge of and the decisions on the ballot, we find a positive response in engagement.” 

According to Kalia, lack of engagement has been an ongoing issue since the pandemic in 2020. He’s noticed that since then, the voting population has never hit the 20% minimum on the first go. 

 

The voting percentages featured below of the last 10 years show that this very well might be the case. ​​

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​​​“Before COVID-19, I remember voting was a hot topic on campus as I notice it is at other universities,” said Kalia. “I think that COVID kind of took a lot away from UCSB in terms of both culture and awareness around AS in general.”

 

Kalia added that in addition to COVID, the lack of engagement also increased after the abolition of the party system in 2021. While abolished because of controversies and created biases—Kalia said that system worked better because it brought up attention and voters wanted to pick a side. 

 

“In my opinion, controversy is better than apathy,” said Khalil. “It just shows that there is passion behind student opinions and that people care.” 

 

As mentioned, the party system has been voted to return in the 2025 school year—just one of many strategies the AS Board hopes will effectively engage more students. 

 

According to Hewitt, the AS Elections Board worked hard to table at the Arbor, Dining Halls and the Pardall Carnival to raise awareness. 

 

“We also send mass emails to the campus and push things out on social media and encourage other campus organizations to do the same,” said Hewitt. 

 

Kalia also mentioned the positive impact of partnering with student organizations, especially political organizations such as the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA). Connecting with fellow students that are passionate about campus activity may be beneficial for AS in the future. 

 

“During my years of candidacy I would go door to door and knock on the freshman dorms,” said Kalia. “That gained me a ton of voters because the freshman don’t ever know what AS is.”

 

Besides old-school outreach methods, Kalia suggests better overall communication from admin would be useful or even an active release of an AS newsletter to flood student inboxes.

 

If the current trend of disengagement continues, UCSB’s student government risks becoming a system led by few, and seen by even fewer. Whether controversy, maximized outreach or a change in student culture is key to spark reengagement, the challenge ahead is to bridge the canyon between AS and the student body.